Cacerolada

Click on the audio link above. If you think it sounds like a whole lot of pots and pans being banged together, you’d be right. I took it from my balcony on Tuesday night but you would have heard something pretty similar if you stepped out onto just about any balcony in Barcelona between 10 and 10:15 every night this week after that (this page is in Spanish but the video has some good scenes of the pot-banging).

It’s called a Cacerolada or Cacerolazo (cacerola is the Spanish word for a cooking pan). It’s a form of public protest very popular in much of the Spanish-speaking world – and has even reached a few other places, like Canada.

The residents of Barcelona were banging their pots and pans together in protest to the latest set-back in their fight for a referendum on independence from Spain. Here’s a post I wrote about the Catalan push for independence the other week.

A makeshift bilboard for the Sí Sí (Yes, Yes) camp

Since I wrote that post, the central government took the referendum to the Constitutional Court, which duly froze it.  In an attempt to keep his word but not break the law, the Catalan Premier, Artur Mas, called a “proceso participatorio” (participatory process) - a sort of unofficial referendum – in which the very same questions would be asked, on the very same day (today, November 9) but with a non-binding result and without the same Catalan government involvement that an official referendum would entail.

That didn’t satisfy anyone. The independistas felt betrayed as they were not getting the true referendum they were promised. The “unionists” thought it was even worse than the referendum as it would lack the democratic guarantees of an official vote.  The Catalans who want the derecho de decidir (right to vote) but who were planning to vote to stay with Spain saw the compromise as a farce in which the only people who would bother voting would be the independistas. And the central government argued that any vote would be illegal and took this one to the Constitutional Court too, which froze it on Tuesday.

And hence all the pot-banging this week.

I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t a tactical error on the part of the central government to go back to the Constitutional Court as it has, at least temporarily, shifted the anger away from Artur Mas straight back onto them.

The independistas and others in favour of the derecho de decidir might not have been happy with the Premier’s compromise, but they are even more unhappy, or better said angry, firstly with the Spanish government for going back to the Constitutional Court and secondly with the Constitutional Court itself for, in their minds, trying to rob them of their democratic right to have their say.

The referendum countdown clock, as it looked today, the day of the vote

And in the end, the vote has gone ahead anyway (the first vote actually being cast in a Catalan polling place in Australia!). It’s looking like the turnout has been big too - more than two million of the six million people who could have voted. Not bad for an unofficial referendum in a county where voting is not compulsory. 

The result is pretty much not in doubt: a win for the first part of the question at least: “Do you want Cataluña to be it’s own State?” And probably for the second part of the question too: “Do you want that State to be independent?”

The ballot paper

As the result is not binding, even if that prediction proves true, I won’t be needing a visa to live here any time soon. But now that the question has been asked, what comes next is going to be very interesting. All eyes are on both the central and Catalan governments to see their next moves.

A final word on caceroladas.  I took part in one once. We were demonstrating in Madrid’s Plaza Chueca, the traditional heart of gay Madrid, against moves by the Town Hall to limit the city’s famous Gay Pride celebrations.

I’ve got to say it was a lot of fun and it is quite an effective manner to protest in the sense that it does get you noticed - a relentless banging on hundreds of pots and pans simply can't be ignored.  It wasn’t so successful in stopping the limitations though and these days Madrid’s Pride is sadly a shadow of its former self. But that's another story for another post.

Cataluña or Catalunya?

The official Catalan flag - La Senyera (L) and the Catalan independence flag - La Estelada

This Saturday just gone was a “historic day” in Cataluña, according to just about every media source I read or tuned into. Of course, which sense of “historic” depended very much on the news source and, clearly, which side of the fence they sit on regarding Cataluña’s derecho a decidir (right to decide) its future within, or not, Spain.

You see, the Catalan President (Premier), Artur Mas, signed into law the Ley de Consultas – the law authorising a referendum in Cataluña on independence from Spain, that he plans to celebrate on November 9 this year.

The referendum countdown clock - installed in the Plaça St Jaume.
On the left it reads "Now is the Time"

The central government in Madrid has flatly refused the referendum on the grounds that it would be unconstitutional for Cataluña to vote unilaterally on independence. And indeed, today, the Consejo de Ministros (Spain’s Cabinet) are meeting with the sole purpose of taking the Catalan law to the Constitutional Court, which will paralyse it until a decision is made. A callejón sin salida (dead-end alley), as those opposed to the independence push say? Well, we’ll have to see.

You could say that symbolically, all the planets had aligned to bring us to Saturday’s “historic” event. On September 11, Cataluña celebrated its “national” day, La Diada”.  This day commemorates the fall of Barcelona in 1714 to the Franco-Spanish forces of the Bourbon king Felipe V at the end of the War of Spanish Succession.

The Catalans had chose the losing side in the war, but their defeat (and their resistance during the Siege of the city) ended up forging a stronger Catalan national identity - sort of like Gallipoli for Australians, I guess.

(As a side-note, I can’t help noticing that Spain’s new Bourbon king (yes Spain’s monarchs are still Bourbons) is Felipe VI… Spooky.)

One of the many huge billboards erected in the centre of Barcelona by the Town Hall,
celebrating the Tricentenary of the Siege of Barcelona. It reads "Live Free"

This year is the 300^th anniversary of the end of the Siege, and with the independista fervour generated over the last year and a bit by Artur Mas’s centre-right nationalist government (supported by their political opposites in just about any other matter except the push for independence, the left-wing republicans Esquerra Republicana) the turnout for the celebrations was massive – the biggest ever. 

1.6 million people, according to the police, converged on Barcelona. Dressed in red and yellow – the colours of the Catalan flag - they took up their positions on two of the city’s main arteries, the Gran Via and the Diagonal, forming a gigantic V for Vota (Vote) that stretched for 11 km. It was quite a sight. 

Part of the V. Pic: Josep Carpintero, Asemblea.cat. CC license

(For fairness, I should note that the central government put the figure at 480,000. Here in Spain though, you generally have the absurd situation where organisers of demonstrations dramatically over-estimate attendance and the government dramatically underestimates the same, so you usually have to go for a middle figure, although in this I’m tempted to go with the police.)

More of the V. Pic: Josep Carpintero, Asemblea.cat. CC license

All this was just a week out from Scotland’s referendum on independence from the UK. The vote was followed with bated breath here in Cataluña and the rest of Spain and although the result obviously disappointed the Catalan independistas, they quickly turned it around to celebrate the fact that the Scottish were at least given the opportunity to vote.

Towers symbolising voting urns set up at the apex of the V during la Diada

And this is where I think things get a bit messy for Madrid. You see it’s not nearly as simple as to say that all those who want the derecho a decidir actually want independence. Last week, when the Catalan Parliament passed the law for the referendum, it did so with the support of more than just the nationalist parties. Many Catalan’s just want to be allowed to have a say.

As an extranjero living in Barcelona, I feel strangely removed from what is going on around me. I’m aware that I can’t fully appreciate the fear and pain that many Spaniards feel at the possibility of a break-up of their country, nor understand the deep-seated sense of “difference” that Catalans feel to other Spaniards.  Also, I come from a country that has never suffered a civil war, as Spain did just 80 years ago, the memory of which I know must be having an impact on people’s opinions on this matter, but just how I cannot fully comprehend.

But I can’t help but wonder if Madrid’s emphatic “no” on exploring avenues for greater Catalan autonomy has not created a rod for its own back, helping to bring us to where we are now.  After all, it’s human nature to baulk at being told “no”. 

Add to that the seemingly un-ending economic crisis, earlier constitutional challenges against Cataluña led by the Party currently in power in Madrid, recent central government reforms that many in Cataluña see as attacks on their language and competences, and I can see where some of the fuel for the secessionist fire might be coming from.

Having said all that, I can understand that no government wants to be the one that oversees the break-up of their country – just look at the last-minute scramble David Cameron made up to Scotland when the polls started to give the advantage to the “Yes” camp in the Scottish vote.

Problem is, simple prohibition (even when based on sound legal arguments, as it seems to be here) seldom works. And Spain should know that better than most from it’s own recent history. Franco’s brutal oppression of any sign of (non-Spanish) nationalism did very little to quell people’s ambitions – if anything it made them stronger.

St George & the dragon, the roses and the books (Sant Jordi y el dragón, las rosas y los libros)...

This Wednesday (April 23) was all about roses and books here in Cataluña. It was La Diada de Sant Jordi (St George´s Day). The day of love (hence the roses) and Catalan culture (the books).

If you’re anything like me, you might only connect Saint George with England. But he´s actually the patron saint of many places and has been an important part of Catalan identity since at least the 14^th century. The shimmering roof of Casa Batlló, one of Antoni Gaudí´s masterpieces on the Passeig de Gracia, actually represents the dragon from the legend of "Saint George and the Dragon".

Casa Batlló. The scaly, shimmering roof represents St George's dragon

Saint George and the Dragon

I was reminded that it was La Diada de Sant Jordi the moment I stepped outside my building as there was a little stall selling roses right there. Walking into the centre (my barrio is about a 15 minute stroll to Plaça Cataluña), I passed a rose stall on just about every corner (although I do have to say that some gave me the distinct impression that they may be flogging roses that had fallen off the back of a truck).

These roses I'm sure did NOT fall off the back of a truck...

But the real action was in town. Barcelona’s famous Rambla, along with The Rambla de Cataluña and the Passeig de Gracia were crammed with stall-after-stall, wrapped in Catalan flags (with varying degrees of love and care) and piled high with books or roses or both. And people. More people than I had ever seen on these streets – it took me half an hour to just walk a few blocks!

There was a very impressive number of book signings going on, a rose market in the Plaça de San Jaume and the beautiful Palace of the Generalitat (the Catalan government) was open to the public. In Plaça Cataluña, local Catalan-speaking TV stations were broadcasting live, along with Catalan radio and even Spain’s national broadcaster.

I eventually bought my rose from a stall set up by a local school. I saw others being run by bookstores and florists (obviously), clothes stores, toy stores (selling dragons, castles and Saint Georges), car dealerships, hotels, charities, animal welfare groups (including one of my favourites: SOS Greyhounds), LGBTI groups, political parties and, of course, the various Catalan independence groups.

Saint Jordi is not exactly a day for Catalan nationalism (that's La Diada Nacional de Cataluña on September 11), but with the current Catalan independence push, there was clearly an air of nationalism mixed in with all the roses and books. 

A referendum on Independence has been scheduled for the coming 9^th of November. The central government has branded the referendum illegal, pledging that it won’t go ahead, but the Generalitat (currently an interesting coalition of conservative and left-wing nationalist parties) is pushing on. And so the Independistas were out in force on Wednesday, collecting signatures in support of the referendum and pushing the "Si + Si" ("yes + yes") campaign for the two questions: "Do you want Catalonia to become a State?" and in case of an affirmative response, "Do you want this State to be independent?"

"Say what Spain may, Referendum!"

If the referendum goes ahead (and that is a big "if") and the "Si + Si" campaign wins, this might have been my first and last Diada de Sant Jordi as a resident of Barcelona. You see, G and I are here as Italian citizens (my dad was Italian and G is Italian-Italian) and according to Spain and Europe, Cataluña will be kicked out of the EU if it chooses to go it alone, which could leave the huge number of resident ex-pats here from other EU countries in a bit of a limbo.

Best not to think about that for now and just smell the roses…