(Updated after new developments late on January 9.)
Spain still has no government after the elections on December 20, only a caretaker cabinet awaiting a difficult coalition formation. That is nothing. Catalonia has not had a government since the regional elections on September 27, only a caretaker one led by Artur Mas, with 47% in his favor the presumptive winner of those elections. Three months after the elections Mr. Mas has been unable to find sufficient support for his investiture. Parties supporting his pet cause of independence for Catalonia have won a majority of seats in the Catalonian assembly. So why has Mr. Mas not been installed as president?
The reason clearly is the person of Artur Mas himself, whose candidacy for another term (his third) as President of Catalonia is divisive, and not at all accepted by a small group of "independentistas" on the left, whose votes are needed to confirm him. Not to forget, Mas is not acceptable either to the remaining half of the Catalonian assembly, who also reject the goal of independence. Autonomy, yes, but not sovereignty.
The persistent failure of Mr. Mas to garner more convincing support for his independence project is visible in his election results. Not that 50% in 2010, or 47% in 2015, is trifling. But an earthshaking change like independence, to break loose from a democratic country like Spain, which has granted a wide range of autonomy privileges to Catalonia and other regions, would seem to require a much stronger basis than just 50% popular support. It might also require a wiser leader, one able to see that his own person has become a stumbling block for the broader political goal.
As you read this, on Sunday, January 10 the deadline arrived for presenting a candidate for President and a government for Catalonia. At the very last moment, on the eve of the deadline, Artur Mas finally stepped aside, so that - according to his statement - new elections would not have to be called. The replacement candidate for the office of President, Carles Puigdemont, mayor of Girona, was subsequently elected at the inaugural session on January 10.
At long last, a small sign of stabilization for Catalonia, whose future has also become a serious snag in the talks for a new national governing coalition. Still, not too much can be expected even with a new Catalonian president. The same push for Catalonian independence will continue.
Its support is perniciously entrenched among the new socialists in Podemos, whose 69 representatives in the new national Congress of Deputies number more than 20 who are not elected on the pure Podemos ticket, but on regional joint lists between Podemos and local, smaller independentista parties, most of them in Catalonia, but several seats also in Valencia and Galicia. These splinter parties are literally "blackmailing" Podemos at the national level into supporting their demand for a Catalonian referendum. Implicitly the Galicians and Valencians also have independence for their own region as their goal. This way the secessionist movement in Spain is becoming like a network of cells spreading from a center in Catalonia to the national level where the demand for referenda on independence is currently choking every attempted coalition.
Spanish politics has seen trouble brewing over several years, though the absolute majority of the Partido Popular made the unrest seem inconsequential. Now stability suddenly seems far off.
Spain still has no government after the elections on December 20, only a caretaker cabinet awaiting a difficult coalition formation. That is nothing. Catalonia has not had a government since the regional elections on September 27, only a caretaker one led by Artur Mas, with 47% in his favor the presumptive winner of those elections. Three months after the elections Mr. Mas has been unable to find sufficient support for his investiture. Parties supporting his pet cause of independence for Catalonia have won a majority of seats in the Catalonian assembly. So why has Mr. Mas not been installed as president?
The reason clearly is the person of Artur Mas himself, whose candidacy for another term (his third) as President of Catalonia is divisive, and not at all accepted by a small group of "independentistas" on the left, whose votes are needed to confirm him. Not to forget, Mas is not acceptable either to the remaining half of the Catalonian assembly, who also reject the goal of independence. Autonomy, yes, but not sovereignty.
The persistent failure of Mr. Mas to garner more convincing support for his independence project is visible in his election results. Not that 50% in 2010, or 47% in 2015, is trifling. But an earthshaking change like independence, to break loose from a democratic country like Spain, which has granted a wide range of autonomy privileges to Catalonia and other regions, would seem to require a much stronger basis than just 50% popular support. It might also require a wiser leader, one able to see that his own person has become a stumbling block for the broader political goal.
As you read this, on Sunday, January 10 the deadline arrived for presenting a candidate for President and a government for Catalonia. At the very last moment, on the eve of the deadline, Artur Mas finally stepped aside, so that - according to his statement - new elections would not have to be called. The replacement candidate for the office of President, Carles Puigdemont, mayor of Girona, was subsequently elected at the inaugural session on January 10.
At long last, a small sign of stabilization for Catalonia, whose future has also become a serious snag in the talks for a new national governing coalition. Still, not too much can be expected even with a new Catalonian president. The same push for Catalonian independence will continue.
Its support is perniciously entrenched among the new socialists in Podemos, whose 69 representatives in the new national Congress of Deputies number more than 20 who are not elected on the pure Podemos ticket, but on regional joint lists between Podemos and local, smaller independentista parties, most of them in Catalonia, but several seats also in Valencia and Galicia. These splinter parties are literally "blackmailing" Podemos at the national level into supporting their demand for a Catalonian referendum. Implicitly the Galicians and Valencians also have independence for their own region as their goal. This way the secessionist movement in Spain is becoming like a network of cells spreading from a center in Catalonia to the national level where the demand for referenda on independence is currently choking every attempted coalition.
Spanish politics has seen trouble brewing over several years, though the absolute majority of the Partido Popular made the unrest seem inconsequential. Now stability suddenly seems far off.
