Catalonia has rights

A great deal of confusion.

We need to overcome this with another approach.

We must start from the premise that Catalonia does indeed have its own personality. It is not “north-eastern Spain”, as it was yet again referred to in very high circles of Spanish power. Nor is it true that the Catalans are merely “Spanish citizens registered as resident in Catalonia”. I am only quoting two of the many definitions that tend to belittle Catalonia’s personality.

Let us start from the premise that CATALONIA HAS RIGHTS.

What rights does Catalonia have?

1. IT HAS THE RIGHT TO BE

To be a people, to be collectively. It has the right to have everything that constitutes its collective personality. Everything that constitutes its identity: language, culture, institutions, rights, collective memory, etc. And it therefore has the right to have these basic elements safeguarded from attack. Furthermore: it must have the necessary elements with which to defend them.

2. IT HAS THE RIGHT TO BE RECOGNISED

It has the right to have a political and legal framework that grants recognition to its personality. Recognition forms part of being. To be is incompatible with anonymity or with the negation of difference. A recognition that is very often brought about by having a state, but not always. It is true though that such recognition has to have the necessary clarity and visibility to assert its personality. To recapitulate: recognition forms part of being.

3. IT HAS THE RIGHT TO SERVE ITS PEOPLE
It has this right, because that is its raison d’être. A collective, a society, a country, a nation is justified by the necessity that people have – that its people have – for a collective framework for their own and personal fulfilment.

This is clearly enshrined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full
development of his personality is possible” (article 29.1). This is a fundamental duty that a people must be able to fulfil. And this it has to be able to do as the leading player. That is, other powers can and sometimes must contribute to it, but the ultimate responsible party is the country itself. That country is Catalonia. So, within the possibilities of time and its own development, it has the right to enjoy everything – political power, economic resources, all manner of conditions –it needs in order to carry out its basic duty as a country, namely to serve its people in all areas: human, social, cultural, economic, etc.

4. IT HAS THE RIGHT TO PROMOTE ITSELF

As I have said, Catalonia has the right to be recognised. Moreover it has the right to promote itself. Because, just as both individuals and collectives are and must be first and foremost themselves, they also have a vital need to communicate, to make contacts. Otherwise they suffocate. Catalonia must therefore be able to promote itself in Spain, in Europe, in the world. Without any limitations other than its own, especially without those imposed.
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It has already been said that this can be achieved through an independent state or through other formulas. Through a confederated state, or a genuine form of asymmetrical federalism (with plenty of political power for the federal peoples) etc.

Could this all be achieved through an Autonomous Statute? The Statute of September 30 would certainly have guaranteed it. And what about the Statute that the Catalan people voted in favour of in the referendum?

No. But it does represent a step forward with respect to the Statute of 1979. Aside from the harm that this has caused in more than one aspect, and aside from the general scepticism regarding its implementation, the new Statute offers Catalonia more possibilities to fulfil its duties than the previous one did.

But this will more or less be true depending on how the current complex situation around the Statute unfolds. Whatever the case, when the time comes to pass judgement on the validity of a Statute of Autonomy, we must see whether it respects the four fundamental rights that all peoples have. Rights that in fact are duties. Catalonia will only be able to fulfil its duties as a country it has these rights.