CATALUNYA

THE FIGHT FOR

INDEPENDENCE

STUDENT: SARIG MIGUEL ANDRE

GROUP: 167

Geographic position
Catalonia, which is located in the Iberian Peninsula, is an autonomous community of Spain.
Barcelona, which is the capital of the province of the same name, is the second most populated
municipality in Spain. Catalonia shares its domestic borders with the Spanish autonomous
communities of Valencia and Aragon and international borders with France and Andorra. The
official languages of Catalonia are Spanish, Catalan.
Beginnings
◦ In the late 15th century, Aragon united by marriage with the Crown of Castile to form
what would later become Kingdom of Spain. 
◦ Initially, the various entities of the Crown of Aragon, including Catalonia, kept their
own fueros (laws and customs) and political institutions as guarantee of their sovereignty,
for which they fought a civil war during the actual union of the crowns, known as
the Catalan Civil War (1462-1472) between foralists and royalists.
◦ In 1640, during the Thirty Years War and Franco-Spanish War, Catalan peasants
revolted, starting the Reapers' War.
◦ After a decade of war, the Spanish Monarchy counter-attacked in 1652 and recovered
Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, except for Roussillon, which was annexed by France.
Catalonia retained its fueros.

During the War of Spanish Succession, most of the territories of the Crown of Aragon, including
Catalonia, fiercely supported Archduke Charles, the Habsburg contender,  who swore the Catalan
constitutions, against the Bourbon contender, who would later abolish the Catalan constitutions
and political institutions through the Nueva Planta Decrees.
After a 14-month siege, Barcelona surrendered to a Bourbon army on 11 September 1714. The
end of the war was followed by the loss of the fueros of all Crown of Aragon territories,
including Catalonia, and the imposition of the Nueva Planta decrees, which centralised Spanish
government.
11 September, the date of the fall of Barcelona, was commemorated by Catalan nationalists from
1886,  and in the 20th century it was chosen as the National Day of Catalonia.
The beginnings of separatism in Catalonia can be traced back to the mid–19th century.
The Renaixença (cultural renaissance), which aimed at the revival of the Catalan
language and Catalan traditions, led to the development of Catalan nationalism and a desire for
independence. Between the 1850s and the 1910s, some individuals, organisations and political
parties started demanding full independence of Catalonia from Spain.
Twentieth century

The first pro-independence political party in Catalonia was Estat Català (Catalan State), founded
in 1922 by Macia. Estat Catala went into exile in France during the dictatorship of Primo de
Rivera (1923–1930), launching an unsuccessful uprising from Mollo in 1926. In March 1931,
following the overthrow of Primo de Rivera, Estat Català joined with the Partit Republicà Català
(Catalan Republican Party) and the political group L'Opinió to form Esquerra Republicana de
Catalunya with Macia as its first leader. The following month, the ERC achieved a spectacular
victory in the municipal elections that preceded the 14 April proclamation of the Second Spanish
Republic.  
Macià proclaimed a Catalan Republic on 14 April, but after negotiations with the provisional
government he was obliged to settle for autonomy, under a revived Generalitat of Catalonia.
Catalonia was granted a statute of autonomy in 1932, which lasted until the Spanish Civil War.
In 1938, General Franco abolished both the Statute of Autonomy and the Generalitat.
A section of Estat Català which had broken away from the ERC in 1936 joined with other groups
to found the Front Nacional de Catalunya (National Front of Catalonia; FNC) in Paris in
1940. The FNC declared its aim to be "an energetic protest against Franco and an affirmation of
Catalan nationalism". Its impact, however, was on Catalan exiles in France rather than in
Catalonia itself. The FNC in turn gave rise to the Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional which
combined a pro-independence agenda with a left-wing stance. A split in the PSAN led to the
formation of the Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional - Provisional in 1974.

Following Franco's death in 1975, Spain moved to restore democracy. A new constitution was

adopted in 1978, which asserted the "indivisible unity of the Spanish Nation", but acknowledged
"the right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions which form it". Independence parties
objected to it on the basis that it was incompatible with Catalan self-determination, and formed
the Comité Català Contra la Constitució Espanyola (Catalan Committee Against the
Constitution) to oppose it.
The constitution was approved in a referendum by 88% of voters in Spain overall, and just over
90% in Catalonia. It was followed by the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1979, which was
approved in a referendum, with 88% of voters supporting it. This led to the marginalisation or
disappearance of pro-independence political groups, and for a time the gap was filled by militant
groups such as Terra Lliure.

In 1981, a manifesto issued by intellectuals in Catalonia claiming discrimination against

the Castilian language, drew a response in the form of published letter, Crida a la Solidaritat en
Defensa de la Llengua, la Cultura i la Nació Catalanes ("Call for Solidarity in Defence of the
Catalan Language, Culture and Nation"), which called for a mass meeting at the University of
Barcelona, out of which a popular movement arose. The Crida organised a series of protests that
culminated in a massive demonstration in the Camp Nou on 24 June 1981. 
Beginning as a cultural organisation, the Crida soon began to demand independence. In 1982, at
a time of political uncertainty in Spain, the Ley Orgánica de Armonización del Proceso
Autonómico was introduced in the Spanish parliament, supposedly to "harmonise" the autonomy
process, but in reality to curb the power of Catalonia and the Basque region. There was a surge
of popular protest against it. The Crida and others organised a huge rally against LOAPA in
Barcelona on 14 March 1982. In March 1983, it was held to be ultra vires by the Spanish
Constitutional Court. During the 1980s, the Crida was involved in nonviolent direct action,
among other things campaigning for labelling in Catalan only, and targeting big companies.
Second Statute of Autonomy and after

Following elections in 2003, the moderate nationalist Convergència i Unió , which had governed

Catalonia since 1980, lost power to a coalition of left-wing parties composed of the Socialists'
Party of Catalonia (PSC), the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya  and a far-
left/Green coalition headed by Pasqual Maragall. The government produced a draft for a
new Statute of Autonomy, which was supported by the CiU and was approved by the parliament
by a large majority.
The draft statute then had to be approved by the Spanish parliament, which could make changes;
it did so, removing clauses on finance and the language, and an article stating that Catalonia was
a nation. When the amended statute was put to a referendum on 18 June 2006, the ERC, in
protest, called for a "no" vote. The statute was approved, but turnout was only 48.9%. At the
subsequent election, the left-wing coalition was returned to power, this time under the leadership
of José Montilla.

The conservative Partido Popular, which had opposed the statute in the Spanish parliament,
challenged its constitutionality in the Spanish High Court of Justice. The case lasted four
years. In its judgement, issued on 18 June 2010, the court ruled that fourteen articles in the
statute were unconstitutional, and that 27 others were to be interpreted restrictively.

The affected articles included those that gave preference to the Catalan language, freed Catalonia
from responsibility for the finances of other autonomous communities, and recognised Catalonia
as a nation. The full text of the judgement was released on 9 July 2010, and the following day
a protest demonstration organised by the cultural organisation Òmnium Cultural was attended by
over a million people, and led by José Montilla.
2014 Referendum

Mas and ERC leader Oriol Junqueras signed an agreement by which the ERC would support the
CiU on sovereignty issues while on other matters it might oppose it. The two leaders drafted
the Declaration of Sovereignty and of the Right to Decide of the Catalan People, which was
adopted by the parliament at its first sitting in January 2013. The declaration stated that "the
Catalan people have, for reasons of democratic legitimacy, the nature of a sovereign political and
legal subject", and that the people had the right to decide their own political future.
The Spanish government referred the declaration to the Spanish Constitutional Court, which
ruled in March 2014 that the declaration of sovereignty was unconstitutional. The court did not,
however, reject the "right to decide", arguing that that right didn't necessarily imply sovereignty
or self-determination.
On 11 September 2013, an estimated 1.6 million demonstrators formed a human chain,
the Catalan Way, from the French border to the regional border with Valencia.

Following the Constitutional Court's ruling, the Catalan government changed the vote to a
"process of citizen participation" and announced that it would be supervised by volunteers. The
Spanish government again appealed to the Constitutional Court, which suspended the process
pending the appeal, but the vote went ahead. The result was an 81% vote for yes-yes, but the
turnout was only 42%, which could be seen as a majority opposed to both independence and the
referendum. Criminal charges were subsequently brought against Mas and others for defying the
court order.

Artur Mas and Oriol Junqueras, signing the 2012–

2016 governability agreement on 19 December 2012
2017 Referendum, Declaration of Independence and new regional elections

In late September 2016, Puigdemont told the parliament that a binding referendum on
independence would be held in the second half of September 2017, with or without the consent
of the Spanish institutions. Puigdemont announced in June 2017 that the referendum would take
place on 1 October, and that the question would be, "Do you want Catalonia to become an
independent state in the form of a republic?" The Spanish government said in response, "that
referendum will not take place because it is illegal."
A law creating an independent republic—in the event that the referendum took place and there
was a majority "yes" vote, without requiring a minimum turnout—was approved by the Catalan
parliament in a session on 6 September 2017. Opposition parties protested against the bill,
calling it "a blow to democracy and a violation of the rights of the opposition", and staged a
walkout before the vote was taken. On 7 September, the Catalan parliament passed a "transition
law", to provide a legal framework pending the adoption of a new constitution, after similar
protests and another walkout by opposition parties.
The same day, 7 September, the Spanish Constitutional Court suspended the 6 September law
while it considered an appeal from Mariano Rajoy, seeking a declaration that it was in breach of
the Spanish constitution, meaning that the referendum could not legally go ahead on 1
October. The law was finally declared void on 17 October and is also illegal according to the
Catalan Statutes of Autonomy which require a two-thirds majority in the Catalan parliament for
any change to Catalonia's status.
The national government seized ballot papers and cell phones, threatened to fine people who
manned polling stations up to 300,000 euros shut down web sites, and demanded that Google
remove a voting location finder from the Android app store. Police were sent from the rest of
Spain to suppress the vote and close polling locations, but parents scheduled events at schools
(where polling places are located) over the weekend and vowed to occupy them to keep them
open during the vote. Some election organizers were arrested, including Catalan cabinet officials,
while demonstrations by local institutions and street protests grew larger.

The referendum took place on 1 October 2017, despite being suspended by the Constitutional
Court, and despite the action of Spanish police to prevent voting in some centres. Images of
violence from Spanish riot police beating Catalan voters shocked people and human rights
organizations across the globe and resulted in hundreds of injured citizens according to Catalan
government officials. Some foreign politicians, including the former Belgian Prime-
Minister Charles Michel, condemned violence and called for dialogue.
 According to the Catalan authorities, 90% of voters supported independence, but turnout was
only 43%, and there were reports of irregularities. On 10 October 2017, in the aftermath of the
referendum, the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, declared the
independence of Catalonia but left it suspended. Puigdemont said during his appearance in the
Catalan parliament that he assumes, in presenting the results of the referendum, "the people's
mandate for Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic", but proposed
that in the following weeks the parliament "suspends the effect of the declaration of
independence to engage in a dialogue to reach an agreed solution" with the Spanish Government.

On 25 October 2017, after the Spanish government had threatened to suspend the Catalan
autonomy through article 155 of the Spanish constitution, the UN Independent expert on the
promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, deplored the
decision to suspend Catalan autonomy, stating "This action constitutes retrogression in human
rights protection, incompatible with Articles 1, 19, 25 and 27 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Pursuant to Articles 10(2) and 96 of the Spanish Constitution, international treaties constitute the
law of the land and, therefore, Spanish law must be interpreted in conformity with international
treaties.
On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament voted in a secret ballot to approve a resolution
declaring independence from Spain by a vote of 70–10 in the absence of the constitutionalist
deputies, who refused to participate in a vote considered illegal for violating the decisions of
the Constitutional Court of Spain.

Pro-referendum rally in Montjuic, 11 June 2017

On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament voted in a secret ballot to approve a resolution
declaring independence from Spain by a vote of 70–10 in the absence of the constitutionalist
deputies, who refused to participate in a vote considered illegal for violating the decisions of
the Constitutional Court of Spain.
As a result, the same day (27 October 2017) Article 155 of the Spanish constitution was
triggered by the Spanish government; the Catalan government was dismissed and direct rule was
imposed from the central government in Madrid.
Under direct rule from Spain, elections were held in Catalonia on 21 December 2017. The three
pro-independence parties retained their control of parliament with a reduced majority of 70 seats
and a combined 47.5% of valid votes cast. Ines Arrimadas anti-independence Ciudadanos party
was the most voted party with 25.4% of votes, the first time in Catalan history that a non-
nationalist party won most votes and seats in an election.
Parties which endorsed the suspension of autonomy by central government represented 43.5% of
votes cast and parties which did not include independence in their electoral program amounted to
52.5% of the vote, notably Catcomu-Podem (7.5% of votes and 8 seats), which is opposed to
independence but supports a legal referendum and denounced the suspension of autonomy. The
excellent performance of the centre-right parties on both sides of the independence debate,
Ciudadanos and Juntxcat, and the underperformance of all other parties (notably, left wing
parties and the Partido Popular) were the most significant factor in this election result.

The trial of Catalonia independence leaders and October 2019 protests

In 2018 some of the independence leaders were sent to preventive detention without bail,
accused of crimes of rebellion, disobedience, and misuse of public funds. Carles Puigdemont and
four members of his cabinet fled into self-exile.
Twelve people were tried by the Supreme Court of Spain, including the previous vice
president Oriol Junqueras of the regional government and most of the cabinet as well as political
activists Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart and the former Speaker of the Parliament of
Catalonia Carme Forcadell. The trial proceedings officially ended on 12 June 2019.
A unanimous verdict by the seven judges that tried the case was made public on 14 October
2019. Nine of the 12 accused received prison sentences for the crimes of sedition; of them, four
were also found guilty of misuse of public funds. Their sentences ranged from 9 to 13 years. The
remaining three accused were found guilty of disobedience and were sentenced to pay a fine but
received no prison term.
The court dismissed the charges of rebellion. Some of the defendants of the trial have expressed
their intention to appeal to the Constitutional Court of Spain and the European Court of Human
Rights. The verdict delivered by the Supreme Court sparked multiple protests across the region.
Clashes erupted into open violence, as protesters reacted violently at police efforts to end the
demonstration, with some demonstrators setting cars on fire and throwing jars of acid at police
officers. The Catalan Law Enforcement agency Mossos d'Esquadra, which had previously been
accused of aiding the independence movement, replied by firing tear gas at the demonstrators.
The pro-independence speaker of the Catalan Parliament condemned the violent incidents and
called for peaceful protests against the ruling. The protests grew larger, as more and more
Catalans took to the streets. Some demonstrators attempted to storm buildings belonging to the
Spanish Government and clashed with police forces. The Spanish Police announced that 51
protesters had been arrested.
On 17 October, the pro-independence President of the Catalan Autonomous government, Quim
Torra, called for an immediate halt to violence and disassociated himself from violent protesters,
while at the same time calling for more peaceful protests. Nevertheless, the situation
in Barcelona had evolved into open street battles between protesters and police, as both violent
demonstrators attacked and provoked police forces, and police officers charged peaceful
protesters for their proximity to violent ones.
Several reports claim that the protests and subsequent riots had been infiltrated by Neo-Nazis
who used the marches as an opportunity to incite violence.

Shortly thereafter, the Catalan President attempted to rally the crowd by stating that he will push
for a new independence referendum as large scale protests continued for the fourth day.

On 18 October, Barcelona became paralyzed, as tens of thousands of peaceful protesters

answered the Catalan President's call and rallied in support of the jailed independence
leaders. The demonstration grew quickly, with the Barcelona police counting at least 525,000
protesters in the city.

As a result of the strike, trains and metro lines saw a reduction to 33% of their usual capacity,
while buses saw a reduction to 25-50% of their usual capacity. The roads to the French border
remained blocked and all roads leading into Barcelona were also cut. 190 flights in and out of the
city were cancelled as a result of the strike.
Spanish car manufacturer SEAT further announced a halt in the production of its Martorell plant
and most of Barcelona's tourist sites had been closed and occupied by pro-independence
demonstrators waving Estelada independence flags and posters with pro-independence
slogans. The El Clásico football match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF was
postponed due to the strike.

On 19 October, following a fifth consecutive night of violence, Catalan President Quim Torra
called for talks between the Catalan independence movement and the Spanish government,
adding that violence had never been the "flag" of the independence movement.
The head of the Spanish Government, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, refused to hold talks with
the Catalan government, as it deemed the former had not condemned the violence strongly
enough. He further categorically rejected the idea of discussing Catalan Independence, stating
that it was impossible under Spanish law.

2021 election
In the 2021 regional election, which saw a low turnout due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pro-
independence parties won over 50% of the popular vote for the first time, and increased their
representation in the parliament from 70 to 74 seats.
 In June 2021, the nine activists who had been jailed in 2019 were released, having been
pardoned by King Felipe VI on the advice of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

Others
From around 2010, support for Catalan independence broadened from being the preserve of
traditional left or far-left Catalan nationalism. Relevant examples are
the liberal economists Xavier Sala-i-Martín and Ramon Tremosa Balcells (elected deputy for
CiU in the European parliament in the 2009 election), the lawyer and current FC
Barcelona president Joan Laporta or the jurist and former member of the Consejo General del
Poder Judicial Alfons López Tena.
The Cercle d'Estudis Sobiranistes, a think tank led by the jurists Alfons López Tena and Hèctor
López Bofill, was founded in 2007. It affiliated with Solidaritat Catalana per la
Independència (Catalan Solidarity for Independence) in 2011.
At the beginning of 2021, Òmnium Cultural published a manifesto to obtain amnesty for Catalan
politicians persecuted by the Spanish justice system. Among the signatories are four Nobel Peace
Prize winners and several world-renowned personalities such as Yoko Ono Lennon and Dilma
Rousseff.
The Nobel Peace Prize winners that signed the manifesto are: Jody Williams, Mairead
Corrigan, Shirin Ebadi and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_independence_movement

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