USA - NBA IN BARCELONA #USA BARCELONA CAPITAL OF CATALONIA. CATALONIA IS NOT SPAIN. CATALONIA INDEPENDENCE!

USA - NBA IN BARCELONA #USA BARCELONA CAPITAL OF CATALONIA. CATALONIA IS NOT SPAIN. CATALONIA INDEPENDENCE!: USA - NBA IN BARCELONA #USA BARCELONA CAPITAL OF CATALONIA. CATALONIA IS NOT SPAIN. CATALONIA INDEPENDENCE!

Una Catalunya independent per rescatar Espanya? experts internacionals ho tenen clar

La German Marshall Fund (GMF) recomana a Europa que miri amb interès el cada cop més nombrós moviment independentista al nostre país

 

En un article al seu bloc, Nicolás Siegel important analista polític de la GMF, descriu la situació espanyola i diferencia que mentre a Espanya  és produeixen protestes per la situació econòmica, a Catalunya creix el moviment independentista i es fa ressò de tot el moviment de l’Assemblea Nacional Catalana i la mateixa marxa per la independència, parteix el seu anàlisi del malestar creixen dels catalans per l’espoli que patim de més del 8% del PIB i de les recents sentencies dels tribunals espanyols contra la immersió lingüística. Destaca també el resultat de la darrera enquesta del CEO que dona més d’un 51% dels catalans a favor de la independència i recomana a Brussel·les i a Washington que mirin en cura la voluntat independentista dels catalans. 

 En el mateix article també parla de la vitalitat de la societat civil catalana en referència a l’ANC i la seva presidenta Carme Forcadell, però també destaca les paraules de líder d’UDC  Duran i Lleida rebatin les dades de l’enquesta i negant la seva validesa, malgrat tot l’analista polític NIcolás Siegel  insisteix en l’augment en aquesta “regió” d’Espanya del moviment independentista; farts d’haver  de suportar pagar i  de patir  viure en un país com Espanya, amb unes dades econòmiques completament negatives.

Qui són “la German Marshall Fund (GMF)” segons  el “Patronat Catalunya Món”

La GMF va ser fundada l'any 1972 en memòria del Pla Marshall, amb l'objectiu de promoure la col·laboració i l'entesa entre Europa i els Estats Units d'Amèrica. La seva finalitat és donar suport a les persones i les institucions que treballen en l'establiment de vincles transatlàntics i actualment té presència als dos costats de l'oceà amb oficines a Berlín, Bratislava, París, Brussel·les, Belgrad, Ankara i Bucarest. Aquesta entitat va crear el Marshall Memorial Fellowship Program l'any 1982 i actualment disposa d'una xarxa que aplega els EUA i vint-i-dos països europeus i compta amb més de 1.600 persones procedents del món de la política, la premsa, les empreses o les organitzacions no governamentals.

El Patronat Catalunya Món té establert un acord amb la German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the US per tal de col·laborar en el desenvolupament a Catalunya de l'American Marshall Memorial Fellowship Program.

Segons aquest acord, el Patronat Catalunya Món és l'organisme responsable de la planificació d’una estada, que es realitza anualment a Catalunya, d’una delegació de la German Marshall Fund integrada per un reduït nombre de persones dels EUA que visiten durant tres setmanes diferents països europeus.
L’objectiu és trobar sinergies, intercanviar coneixements, estrènyer les relacions transatlàntiques i, en definitiva, promoure oportunitats de col·laboració i participació entre la societat civil europea i la dels EUA. Els visitants tenen l'oportunitat de conèixer, mitjançant persones expertes, l'economia, la política, la cultura, la societat i el funcionament de les principals institucions europees i detectar, de manera transversal, els eixos i els reptes que afecten cada país.

As Spain Protests Austerity, Catalonia Pushes for Independence

WASHINGTON—Thousands of miners entered Madrid last week, singing loudly, setting off fireworks, and waving signs and banners. Some walked as far as 250 miles from the mining regions along Spain’s northern coast. The marcha negra (black march) ended with a violent clash with police in front of Spain’s Industry Ministry building. Over the ensuing days, laborers and civil servants rallied throughout the city, blocking streets and railways. Some women wore black veils as though for a funeral. The target of these protests was the austerity package passed last Wednesday by the embattled government of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy — whose future, the miners reminded him, was “darker than our coal.”
The €65 billion package consists of EU-recommended tax increases, public sector spending cuts, city and regional government overhauls, and the liberalization of the transportation sector. The hope is that these measures will help the country, having recently requested up to €100 billion in European aid for its banks, avoid an international state bailout along the lines of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. With government revenues and housing prices falling, and debt on the rise, though, it may well prove to be a doomed effort.
And yet as workers from throughout the country converge on Madrid for protests, a second, altogether different movement is gathering strength in one of Spain’s wealthiest autonomous regions, Catalonia. There, thousands have gathered throughout the summer in towns and villages to call for much more than an end to austerity. Their goal is complete independence for their region of over 7.5 million from the Spanish state. Catalonia, like the Basque Country, has a long and complicated history with Castillian-dominated Spain. But the crippling economic crisis, resentment over transfers of roughly 8 to 9 percent of Catalonia’s GDP to poorer parts of Spain, and incidents such as recent Spanish Supreme Court opposition to Catalan language immersion programs in the region’s pre-schools have combined to form a three-layered gift for the independentistes.
According to recent polls conducted by the Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió, 51.1 percent of all Catalans would vote for independence from Spain in a hypothetical referendum. This represents a six-point increase in the past four months alone. When asked the broader question of what Catalonia should be vis-à-vis Spain, 34 percent said “independent,” a 20-point increase since the pre-crisis days of 2006. Following the release of the polling data, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría called on all Spaniards to understand that with the country’s other concerns, “now must be a time for stability.” Catalan MP Josep Antoni Duran sought to downplay the results, arguing that a majority of Catalans would still prefer increased autonomy over outright independence.
Yet between now and September, over 200 pro-independence rallies and marches are scheduled to take place across Catalonia, building up to a massive demonstration on September 11, the region’s national holiday. The plan from there, according to the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) will be to organize a referendum on Catalonia’s status for the following year, and proclaim full independence in 2014. “For us, independence is a question of dignity,” says Carme Forcadell, head of the ANC. “We don’t want to live on our knees within Spain when we could stand on our own feet in Europe.”
Spain, with unemployment rates of close to 25 percent, youth unemployment over 50 percent, increasing emigration, and expectations of long-term recession and austerity, should be watched very carefully by policymakers in Brussels and Washington. Its dual crises of social and economic unrest, paired with an unprecedented loosening of the bonds that tie it together as a nation, make it perhaps the most apt microcosm of today’s European Union. As the country drifts towards a possible state bailout, the tightening screws of la crisis are threatening to drive fissures through every aspect of its social, political, and economic life, and push it into the uncharted waters of possible, although still unlikely, disintegration.
During the recent European Championship, the uglier side of pan-European tensions was often on display. “Without Angie, you wouldn’t be here,” chanted German fans during the game with Greece, referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We’ll never pay you back,” replied the Greeks. At a wedding I recently attended in Catalonia, I found only one fellow guest tracking the status of the ongoing match between Spain and France, and he was quietly rooting for France. “We Catalans are tired of seeing our tax money go to Spain,” he said, cringing as news of another Spanish goal popped up on his phone. “I guess you could say we understand how Germany feels.”
Nicholas Siegel is Senior Program Officer with the Transatlantic Academy in Washington DC.