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By Carles Boix

Catalonia’s regional election this weekend amounts to an indirect referendum on independence. Of course, Catalans would have preferred to have a direct vote on the question of whether to secede from Spain. But the Spanish government’s staunch refusal to authorize such a referendum has left Catalans with only one option: to demonstrate their will by filling their parliament with candidates who will push for sovereignty.

The de facto referendum, while imperfect, will send a clear message. I hope that the message it sends is one of support for independence, delivered through a victory for the “Together for Yes” slate of candidates. Indeed, there is no shortage of good reasons to support Catalonia’s independence drive.

For starters, independence would advance the cause of cultural preservation, by ensuring, for example, the use of Catalan in mass media, customer-service support lines, and product labeling. It would also enable Catalonia to take steps – impossible under the Spanish government, which collects more taxes from the region than it returns in spending – to protect those who have been worst hit by the crisis. And it would facilitate an effective response to the structural and technological challenges that characterize the twenty-first-century globalized economy, including by giving Catalonia control over investment in infrastructure and research and development.

But the most important reason to support Catalonia’s independence is strictly political: within Spain, Catalan autonomy is far from guaranteed. The Spanish government’s continuous interventions have proved that, at the end of the day, Catalonia is not really autonomous at all.

Catalans agreed to the 1978 Spanish constitution, after a century-long struggle for self-rule, precisely because it was supposed to transfer a meaningful set of powers to the Catalan government. But that is not what happened.

Instead, Spain’s central government has encroached on Catalonia’s decisions in virtually all policy areas. Given Catalans’ position as a minority within Spain, we lack any recourse when the majority interprets the constitution – as well as pacts between the central and regional governments – in a way that diverges from our rights or interests.

Just three years after the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia was first enacted, a law – entitled Ley Orgánica de Armonización del Proceso Autonómica, or LOAPA – was passed that eroded the nature and extent of the powers that had been granted to Spain’s regional governments. To secure the statute’s implementation, Catalonia’s government and political parties had to rely on pacts with Spanish parties that had yet to secure a parliamentary majority, and thus were willing to trade powers for votes. Once those parties obtained a majority in the following elections, however, they rushed to pass laws that revoked whatever powers had been granted. Catalonia, like Homer’s Penelope, has been forced continually to weave and reweave its autonomy.

In 2006, Catalans hoped that, finally, this exhausting political process was over, after the Catalan parliament enacted a new statute that aimed to protect, once and for all, the region’s authorities from central-government meddling. But the statute was heavily amended in the Spanish parliament, and, in 2010, Spain’s constitutional court struck down what little of importance was left in it.

The message is clear: Catalonia can no longer take the Spanish government at its word. A contract, no matter what promises it contains, has no value if one of the parties has the exclusive power to interpret and execute its terms. Given Catalonia’s size and Catalans’ minority status, Spain’s position will always prevail.

Aristotle defined democracy as a system in which citizens, or groups of citizens, take turns governing. But, in the Spanish political system, some always govern, while others never do. That simply cannot work for Catalonia.

Some have proposed a federal system as an alternative to independence. But such a system would be extremely difficult to establish, owing to the need for constitutional reforms that Spanish parties are highly unlikely to approve. More important, even if federalization were somehow implemented, it would not solve the problem. A majority of autonomous regions or federated states would still control the interpretation and execution of all agreements. And Catalans would not have enough allies to protect their most essential interests.

In short, Catalonia’s only option for guaranteeing its legitimate aspirations for self-government is to become a sovereign state. Only then would it have the authority to veto decisions that controvert its interests; the capacity to tackle the cultural, social, and economic challenges that it faces; and the ability to cooperate with neighboring countries from a position of equality.

In the impending election, Catalans should not be fazed by threats from the anti-independence camp. After all, following through on those threats – from a freeze on bank deposits to permanent exclusion from the European Union – would harm everyone, especially those who are making them. In this sense, they merely serve to highlight the deeply flawed nature of the current system.

A solid majority for the Together for Yes slate should erode Spain’s resistance, may crack Europe’s neutrality, and will open the gates to a road – difficult, yet traversable – toward dignity. Let us vote in freedom and with peace of mind. The effort is worth it.

Copyright: Project Syndicate: Yes to Catalan independence

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