Published originally in Spanish. Luis Garicano. El Diario. I live in Pozuelo, a municipality in the outskirts of Madrid, where I commute daily. Pozuelo is the richest city in Spain, with an average household income of €73,000. Pozuelo is full of good private schools. Many of my neighbors use neither the public school system nor […]
Mes: septiembre 2017
Foreign in my own country
Published originally in Spanish. Roger Senserrich. Politikon. I think I have said this before, but I always felt as belonging, sentimentally at least, to four countries: Venezuela, England, United States and Catalonia. I was born in Venezuela; I lived there until I was 6. I never went again. First, because I was too young, later […]
The expressive vote for independence
Published originally in Spanish. Ricardo Dudda. Letras Libres. For many supporters of Catalan independence, the illegal referendum on October 1 is an act of democracy because it consists in putting a ballot into a ballot box. One of the most frequent errors of the Catalan independence movement is equating voting with democracy. The October 1 […]
Le vote expressif pour l’indépendance
Publié à l’origine en espagnol. Ricardo Dudda. Letras Libres. Pour de nombreux indépendantistes catalans, le référendum illégal du 1er octobre est un acte démocratique car il consiste à introduire un bulletin dans une urne. L’une des erreurs les plus fréquentes de l’indépendantisme catalan est d’assimiler le vote à la démocratie. Le vote du 1er octobre […]
Constitutional Democracy and the secession referendum in Catalonia (II)
Constitutional Democracy and the secession referendum in Catalonia (I) Published originally in Spanish. Manuel Toscano. JotDown. II Among the justifications put forward by supporters of the referendum and secessionist adventure is the so-called «right to decide». It has been a powerful rhetorical resource behind which lies the right to self-determination of peoples or secession. That […]
Konstitutionelle Demokratie und Abspaltungsreferendum in Katalonien (II)
Ursprünglich auf Spanisch veröffentlicht. Manuel Toscano. JotDown. Konstitutionelle Demokratie und Abspaltungsreferendum in Katalonien (I) II Unter den Rechtfertigungen, die die Befürworter des Referendums und des sezessionistischen Abenteuers ins Spiel bringen, befindet sich seit Jahren das sogenannte „Recht zu entscheiden“. Es ist ein mächtiger rhetorischer Rekurs, hinter dem sich das Recht der Völker zur Selbstbestimmung bzw. […]
Marre
Publié à l’origine en espagnol. Laura Freixas. La Vanguardia. J’en ai marre. Marre d’un “procés” [mouvement séparatiste] qui se prolonge depuis cinq ans et qui tourne en rond, qui ne va nulle part, mais qui consomme des énergies, monopolise des débats, et gaspille des ressources publiques payées par tous. J’ai marre d’un govern (gouvernement régional) […]
You will make a foreigner out of me
Originally published in Spanish. Juan Claudio de Ramón. The Objective. In democracy secession is the worst of sins. Michael Ignatieff I have –we have- difficulties to make many people understand the severity of what is going on in Catalonia. The difficulty is already high with Spaniards from other parts of the country, who does not […]
Les dix pièges du hold-up électoral
Publié à l’origine en espagnol. Ignacio Varela. El Confidencial. Personne ne peut prévoir ce qui se passera en Catalogne, mais nous sommes certains d’une chose : il n’y a pas de vote pouvant être admis et homologué comme correct démocratiquement. En conversant avec une personne jouissant d’une longue expérience dans la supervision internationale des processus […]
To get into the trap
Published originally in Spanish. Soledad Gallego-Díaz. El País. To get into the trap and to close the door: that is what the Catalonian Government want the Catalonians to do, with its insistence on celebrating an independence referendum on October 1st. To fall into the same trap that many other western societies are falling into, assuming […]