Catalonia - Catalunya

Catalan PP blasts Generalitat's campaign against Spanish-language business

The Catalan PP has demanded that the Generalitat's commerce counselor Josep Huguet explain before the regional parlaiment why the number of legal actions taken against Catalan businesses that only use the Spanish language has increased by 400% in the last six months. The Generalitat is Catalonia's autonomous regional government, and Huguet is a member of the radical separatist party ERC, the Republican Left of Catalonia. In recent months, the number of mostly anonymous accusations against and official inspections of businesses that use Spanish has skyrocketed. The PP will ask Huguet for the exact figures; his department has received more than one thousand denunciations in the last six months against businesses that do not conform to a 1998 law that obliges businesses to serve clients using Catalan and to have signs and information in that language. The head of linguistic policy, Carme Laura Gil, defended the increase in legal sanctions "because they enforce a law that defends consumers. It is not a measure against businesses, but rather it defends the right of the consumer to be served in his own language." Nearly everyone in Catalonia speaks Spanish; about half the population speaks Catalan.

Generalitat tries to limit use of Spanish in schools

Daniel Sirera yesterday accused the Generalitat, Catalonia's regional goverment, of ordering "discrimination" against Spanish and of "trying to treat it as a foreign language." In a missive sent to all schools in Tarragona province, the Generalitat's education department said, "Using Spanish hurts the students' social cohesion," and warned that inspectors would be sent to watch teachers. The missive established "the labor obligation of teaching staff of the Generalitat of Catalonia to do their work in Catalan." It continues, "Catalan must be the language of internal and external use in schools in the oral and written expression of the teachers and in their administrative duties." According to Sirera, "It is intolerable for them to prohibit Spanish not only in class, but also in the conversations of teachers with parents, on school playgrounds, and even in conversations with students who just arrived here." He called the Generalitat's action "normal in non-democratic regimes, where under threat they try to impose their ideas and limit individual freedom."

Why are you all sons of whores?

Dear friends of Catalonia thank you for keeping my post so active in this forum, noone makes more for Catalonia than you.

Keep being this way for ever, you are a factory of catalan nationalists.

bye bye

"Nearly everyone in Catalonia speaks Spanish; about half the population speaks Catalan."

Untrue. Official figures state that over 75% of the population of Catalonia is fluent in Catalan. Amongst the younger generation almost 100% of the population is fluent in both languages and there is a shift towards Catalan as a home language in the second generation.

Nothing that doesn't also happen in Valladolid regarding Castilian.

It must be said Catalonia has received a great deal of immigration in the past 50 years but that native Catalans have always spoken Catalan as their first home language regardless of the treatment the language has received from Spain for most of the past 300 years. It must be said that Catalan was the only official language of Catalonia until the early 18th century.

Democracy has meant a change in this situation and some don't seem to take it very well.

Nicely translated articles and international campaign against the interests of Catalonia. I wonder who is behind all this.

Generalitat of Corruptonia (sorry, Catalonia) studies legal action against alleged boycott while sponsoring its own.

Catalonia's regional government, the Generalitat, is studying whether it can take legal action against several media outlets which supposedly called for a boycott of Catalan products, and will ask the central government to take a side in the dispute. However, as Libertad Digital is reporting, the Generalitat itself has sponsored a boycott of products not labeled in the Catalan language since 2002. Catalan commerce counselor Josep Huguet claimed that some anonymous acts, such as graffiti on walls, "can be criminal, since the Penal Code considers discrimination on the basis of race or origin to be a crime." He then said, "These actions, unfortunately, are reminiscent of those of the Nazi period, using symbols to mark minority groups." Huguet called the Generalitat-sponsored boycott of products labeled only in Spanish "a campaign in order to promote the consumption of Catalan products by Catalans." Meanwhile, Catalan sparkling-wine producer Freixenet announced a 4% decline in its sales in Spain during 2004 as a result of a boycott of Catalan products announced after Catalan radical separatist leader Josep Lluís Carod Rovira attempted to sabotage Madrid's campaign for the 2012 Olympics last year.

Radical leader of Catalonia threaten to Civil War

In the wake of ERC (radical Catalan separatists) counselor Josep Huguet's threats that if a new Catalan regional statute was not passed, there would be "a social crisis" and "a civil war" in Catalonia, PP spokesman Francesc Vendrell demanded that Huguet apologize before the Catalan parliament. Vendrell asked Catalan Socialist Pasqual Maragall, "Why do you keep a counselor like this one in your administration?" Said Vendrell, "It would be better if he collaborated toward peaceful coexistence in this country without causing alarm and bringing back old ghosts from the past." Huguet had said on Sunday that his party "would turn against Spain as if we were Els Segadors," in reference to a 17th century rebellion in Catalonia.

Spanish flag "excluded" in Barcelona districts.

Alberto Fernández Díaz yesterday complained about the "exclusion" of the Spanish flag from the municipal buildings in the districts of Sarria and Les Corts, both controlled by the Catalan Socialists. The Spanish flags have been removed and the empty flagstaffs are still there. On the front of the Barcelona city hall, only the Catalan flag flies. According to Alberto Fernández Díaz "When the Catalan flag is flown alone the law is being broken, since if it is flown the rest of official flags must also be flown. In addition, the Spanish flag was excluded in August from the Gracia district's celebration. The Barcelona city government is extending the exclusion of the Spanish flag, because we're not merely talking about Gracia, where the council member is a Catalan separatist, but it's spreading to other districts where the council members are Socialists. When the Catalan parliament passed the statute, the Tripartite (Communist-Socialist-Catalan separatist coalition in power) and CiU (moderate Catalanists) said it was an open hand held out to Spain. Now they're reaching out by excluding the Spanish flag, not only breaking the law but ignoring the feelings of the majority of us Barcelonese, who in addition to feeling Catalan, feel Spanish."

Catalan TV show: "Lots of fascists loose in Spain"

The television comedy Porca Miseria, broadcast in prime-time Sunday night on Catalan government TV station TV3, last Sunday put in the mouths of one of its characters, "Some people must be afraid people will find out that we Catalans exist. There are still a lot of fascists loose in Spain." In another episode, lead actor Joel Joan attacked the Catholic Church and called on viewers not to make the voluntary checkoff on their tax returns that supports the Church, while he denounced the alleged "fiscal expoliation of Catalonia by Spain." Another episode tried to whip up fears that Catalan might be prohibited in the workplace, and in addition called US president Bush a fascist. Catalan PP leader Francesc Vendrell called on TV3 directors to take measures "so that such acts do not happen again."

Woman not hired in Catalonia due to "marked Spanish accent"

The Catalan People's Party (PP) on Thursday demanded before the regional parliament that the Catalan traffic department explain its discrimination against an otherwise qualified woman because of her "marked Spanish accent." The woman, who had applied for a job as a telephone receptionist, was rejected after an internal report concluded she had "one weak point: a marked Spanish accent." The woman speaks Catalan, the regional language, perfectly, and fulfilled all the other requirements for the job. The PP believes this incident is "one more example of the sectarian policies of the nationalists that govern Catalonia, who discriminate against everything related to Spanish." It stressed the explicit contradiction “that those who talk about Catalanophobia discriminate against a person who speaks Catalan, but not with the accent they want." PP deputy Daniel Sirera said that the Catalan administration "should take into account that a woman whose mother tongue is Spanish has made an effort to learn Catalan, independent of the accent." Sirera also noted that the official report mentioned as an "observation" that the candidate has a son. He said, "The nationalists preach that they are based on progressive leftist ideas, but in this case they've proven that they care very little about social policy, since it is unacceptable that having children can influence the process of job selection."

Catalan government asks Vatican to censor Cope Radio

An official delegation from the Catalan regional government, the Generalitat, visited the Vatican on Wednesday in order to present a formal complaint against Cope Radio's "anti-Catalan content which is against Catholic values," especially Federico Jimenez Losantos's morning program. Jimenez Losantos is the editor of Libertad Digital and the Spain Herald. Cope Radio is owned by the Spanish Bishops' Conference. The PP criticized the Generalitat for "wasting resources taking trips in order to silence a radio station." PP spokesman Daniel Sirera said that Spanish vicepremier María Teresa Fernández de la Vega "has already been to the Vatican to complain, and they told her to go back and discuss the issue in Spain." The delegation was headed by ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia, radical separatists)apparatchik Xavier Vendrell, and had the support of chief of staff Josep Bargallo and of the Catalan Tripartite currently in power, made up of the Socialists, Communists, and ERC. It was received by a minor Vatican official, as secretary of state Angelo Sodano was unable to meet with them. Vendrell gave the official a dossier including a manifesto signed by forty Catalan Catholic intellectuals against Cope Radio, a transcription of some commentaries and editorials broadcast by Cope, and statements by members of the Catalan Catholic hierarchy.

Maragall (regional president of catalonia) In The Police Station

If tomorrow, while spending a weekend in Barcelona and walking along the Ramblas, someone steals your wallet, get ready, the worst is still to come. After recovering from the fright and facing up to all the trouble and headaches of having your wallet stolen, you have to head to the Police Station to report the crime. That is when you need to be really careful. The odyssey begins here.
To start with, don’t go looking for the National Police. On November 1st, they stopped serving Catalonia. Their job in the region now consists only in investigation. Replacing them are the Mossos, with full police powers, and a new uniform with the Catalan flag in plain sight to clear up any doubts about their political affiliation.
Next, you will find the Mossos have received a directive from the Catalan Department of the Interior to speak exclusively in Catalan. Only when the affected citizen demonstrates he or she cannot speak Catalan can the Mossos use another language, including Spanish.
When it looks like we are finally communicating with the Mossos (and don’t forget they are, first and foremost, a part of the state’s security forces), we are in for the big shock. Forget about finding a single Spanish flag in these police stations. But now you can’t even find a picture of King Juan Carlos, being, as he is, the head of state. Instead, there is an official shot of Pasqual Maragall staring down at us from the walls of local police stations in Catalonia.
Can anyone explain why Maragall is acting like a head of state? Does he fancy himself de facto President of a Catalan Republic? The tri-party government will certainly say this is an unimportant question. Well, if it is so unimportant, why not put back the King’s picture? As you see, going to a police station in Catalonia is quite an adventure… but a sad one.

Majority of Spaniards oppose Catalan statute, think Zapatero wrong

More than 65% of Spaniards oppose defining Catalonia as a nation in the text of the new Catalan regional statute of autonomy, according to surveys published in the newspapers El Mundo, El País, and La Razón. More than 53% agreed that the new statute might have consequences for the unity of Spain. Catalan separatist (ERC) leader Carod Rovira yesterday called on liberal intellectuals and politicians in Madrid "to come out and call for what we call for, respect for Catalonia," during the process of the Catalan statute through the Congress.
El Mundo's survey said that 57% of Spaniards oppose the text passed by the Catalan parliament, and that a 68%-23% majority of them oppose the statute's definition of Catalonia as a nation. 55% of those surveys think Zapatero made an error by fostering the statute, and 53% reject giving the Catalan regional government powers that had previously belonged to the central government. 51% would support changing the election law to decrease regional nationalist power, 58% think the new statute "puts the unity of Spain at risk," and 67% believe the statute lacks solidarity with the rest of Spain.
El País reported that 69% of those surveyed are against "defining Catalonia as a state within Spain," and that 53% believe that the new statute "endangers the unity of Spain." 53% also believe that the statute lacks solidarity with other parts of Spain. 79% of Spaniards believe that the statute must obey the Spanish constitution. The majority of the Spanish autonomous regions governed by the Socialist party oppose the statute.
La Razón's survey said that 69% do not agree with recognizing Catalonia as a nation, 59% believe that the statute "may have repercussions in the structure of the central government," and 62% believe that it does not show solidarity with other regions.
Catalan radical separatist (ERC) leader Josep Lluis Carod Rovira yesterday called on liberal intellectuals and politicians in Madrid "to come out and call for what we call for, respect for Catalonia," during the process of the Catalan statute through the Congress of Deputies. Carod asked, "Where are the Spanish liberals, where is the voice of the Spanish liberal intellectuals, writers, politicians, and thinkers? Where are the friends of Catalonia in Madrid at this historic moment? If we have any that go deeper than private conversations, they should come out and support us." He criticized PP leader Mariano Rajoy's opposition to the statute, and demanded that he not opine on a text supported by 120 of the 135 members of the Catalan regional parliament.

No Boycott!

The most fascinating thing about the Catalan Statute the national-socialist coalition governing that region has arranged, is the pedagogical effort made during its writing. With the first article affirming “Catalonia is a nation,” the logical thing would be for the document to end with an article saying something like: “And that is that.” As Carl Schmitt would say, the constituting political decision resides in this precept. That the fathers of this unborn mini-Magna Carta have not skimped on talent or hard work in the didactic development of this basic reality (more than two hundred consecutive precepts) is secondary.
Perhaps the prayers the Archbishop of Barcelona heaped on the Statute’s founding fathers have had an impact. What is sure is Monsignor Martinez Sistach has acquired his right to form part of Catalan history. The spiritual, and even earthly, benefits the exclusion of religion from public education, the spreading of abortion and the legalization of euthanasia are going to offer the Roman Catholic Church in Catalonia look huge.
With such support, Episcopal blessing included, the final product necessarily generated enthusiasm among Catalan society’s most dynamic sectors. The top-notch companies, conscious of their responsibility in this historic moment, have contributed by putting the “national construction” ahead of their business objectives. It is unimportant the existence of different fiscal models in a single market means throwing up new barriers to commerce. It is unimportant the interventionist prerogatives granted the Catalan government in this statute stray into the totalitarian. For these leaders of Catalan industry, the New Statue comes first –even if the displeasure it provokes in the rest of Spain ends up affecting their profits. This indeed deserves recognition.
This is why, completely distanced from any Catalan-phobia Perez-Carod is all the time denouncing, we will never call for a boycott of the businesses that have encouraged the writing of this separatist reform. Just so we know, those would be: La Caixa (Gas Natural, Caprabo, Aguas de Barcelona, Abertis, Banco Sabadell, Inmobiliaria Colonial, Occidental Hoteles, Port Aventure), Agrolimen (Gallina Blanca, El Pavo, Avecrem, Pans & Company, Bocatta, Dodot, Affinity), Caixa Catalunya, Casademont, Freixenet, Grupo Godó (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Avui), Corporación Puig (Agua Brava) and Grupo Planeta.
This is the Pax Catalonia. Enjoy it and try not to mess it up.

Nothing Is What It Seems

As is well known, the sovereign Constitution, which Catalan politicians have taken to calling the “reform project of Catalonia’s Autonomy Statute,” has 218 articles, longer than the North Korean Constitution, with only 166. It is also longer than China’s (138 articles), Cuba’s (137), Laos’ (80) and Iran’s (177) –countries fairly inclined to regulating various aspects of their subjects’ lives. In a show of defiance, the mysterious Bhutan’s Constitution has but 34 articles. Burundi’s, more ambitious, stretches to 189. Certainly the writers of the Constitution, called Statute, wanted to demonstrate theirs is longer than Spain’s, which is not short at all, having 169 articles.
If they wanted to give birth to a strong nation, those running the Catalan government over in the Ciudadela Park should have come up with something around 7 articles long that would last for centuries. But my goodness! If we add to the 218 articles the 19 dispositions (the additional, transitory and final ones) and the 10 principles clearly numbered at the end of the preamble, we are closing in on 300 precepts. Whatever the content, the quantity is already worrisome, overwhelming and exhausting. Why not 1500 or 3000 articles?
Maragall wants Catalan school children to learn this commanding preamble by heart. When I heard of such desires to program young people, a Pink Floyd song from The Wall came to mind: “We don’t need, no, thought control… Teacher, leave the kids alone…” Another brick in the wall. The little tykes will recite: first, Catalonia is a nation (why don’t they just tattoo this on their arms in the maternity wards?); second, the Generalitat (name of the regional government), reestablished in 1931 never ceased to exist, at home or in exile, thanks to the tenacity of our people and the loyalty of their leaders.
We need to look at this more carefully. If a historic continuity between the Generalitat in 1931 and the current one exists it is because conservative Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez and Josep Tarradellas, the only tenacious and loyal Catalan leader, wanted it so. Tarradellas reward from the Catalan left? The old man was exiled, no one paying him the least bit of attention for decades –except for two or three Catalans who were linked to Franco’s regime. Or was Sentis a Bolshevik? Come on.
Indoctrinating children is a serious thing. By installing non-confessional schooling, future Catalans will have to learn the Ten Commandments at home or when they are older. But a catalogue of false historical facts will come to them in dreams and condition their political and historical vision forever. The same thing is happening to this unhappy Statute that happened to Ferran Adria’s solidarity dessert, “gentle clouds,” which the Generalitat ordered be manipulated, cut, filled with dissolvent and sent off to prisoners in the Modelo. The same: they present it as a good cause; it is well dressed, carries a cute name… and is poisoned because they wrapped it in an unsafe place.