INTERVIEW Manuelle Peloille, professor at the University of Angers, director of the magazine "Cahiers de civilization espagnole contemporaine", reviews the situation in Catalonia ...
Thousands of Catalans have taken to the streets to demand a referendum on the independence of the region on 20 September 2017 in Barcelona - NICOLAS CARVALHO OCHOA / SIPA
Tensions in Spain over Catalonia concerning the draft referendum on self-determination launched unilaterally by the separatist executive of Catalonia and scheduled for 1 October. The 7.5 million inhabitants of this region are invited to choose whether or not they want Catalonia to become an independent republic.
With the approach of the vote, Madrid wants to prevent the holding of this ballot deemed illegal by the Constitutional Court. On Wednesday, the government of Mariano Rajoy suspended its payment of 1.4 billion euros to the Generalità, under the system of financing autonomous regions. In the street, thousands of people are protesting for this referendum to take place. Back on this political situation with the hispanist Manuelle Peloille, professor at the University of Angers, director of the journal Cahiers de civilization contemporaine ...
How can this situation be explained between the government of Mariano Rajoy and the independentists who rule Catalonia?
First of all, let us not forget that the French model must not be projected on Spain and its regions. There is a long tradition of frontal oppositions and negotiations between the rulers and the provinces. Then, the question of Catalonia is not recent: its project of autonomy, but not necessarily of separation, takes root in 1892 [ Bases of Manresa ]. And there were two unilateral proclamations of the Catalan republic by Francesc Macia [leader of the Catalan Left Republican] in 1925, under the military dictatorship then of Luis Companys in 1934 at the same time as the Asturian commune.
This did not go well, the repression was violent ... After the death of Franco [in 1975], the Catalan separatists thought democracy in the early 1980s as a step towards independence. This question of autonomy and independence is not new, and it came back in 2006 with the new status of autonomy, then in 2014 with the request for referendum.
The situation seems radical. Is there a break?
I will qualify. Between discourses on social networks and some reports where the demonstrators are close-up, the vision may be distorted. If today there are thousands of people on the streets, it has nothing to do with the hundreds of thousands of people who marched in 2012, or the human chain [400 kilometers long, an independent Catalonia] in 2013. But yes, there are radicals on both sides, and yes, the situation is tense. The government of Mariano Rajoy after having wanted to temporize, seems today to use the strong way that has its limits. Except that today his position puzzles me, because after playing the watch, his government seems to be cornered. Empowering Catalonia is no longer possible unless secession is accepted.
Are the Catalans as a whole in favor of independence?
According to published surveys, the Catalans do not seem in their entirety for independence. There are strong family, economic and cultural ties between Catalonia and the rest of Spain.
How do you analyze the reactions of European countries about Catalonia?
Countries like Germany and Italy do not favorably see the independence claim in Catalonia. Neither Angela Merkel, who is Bismarckian nor Paolo Gentiloni, wants independent Bavaria or Lombardy. For them, it is playing with fire, as with the end of Yugoslavia. This is why they do not support this vision of the Europe of the regions, pushed by the Catalans since the 1960s, for it could result in a dismemberment of nation states.