People at Espanyol Stadium yell “Shakira is a whore” against Piqué

There was a lot of tension during the latest Barça-Espanyol derby, both on the field and on the stands. Among the chants intoned by some of the fans of Aguirre’s team, one could hear “Death to Trias” and “Shakira is a whore,” whenever FC Barcelona’s Gerard Piqué touched the ball.

French

German

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Catalan independence movement gathers pace

BARCELONA, April 27 — Romance was in the air in my home town of Barcelona on Wednesday, when the locals celebrated Sant Jordi’s Day — Catalonia’s patron saint St George — in the traditional manner of men buying a rose for women, who reciprocated with the gift of a book for their menfolk.

The day serves as a Catalan equivalent of Valentine’s Day, and on a bright and sunny Wednesday afternoon, strolling down the tree-lined avenue of Passeig De Gracia, with impromptu one-day-only book and flower stalls cramming the pavements, was a festive experience.

However, a little below the surface there lurks a far less benevolent sentiment in the hearts of many residents, whose calls for independence from Spain are gathering momentum all the time.

Away from Spain, few people are particularly aware of the Catalan independence issue. For the vast majority of outsiders, Barcelona and its surrounding countryside, tucked in behind the Pyrenees mountain range, is the north-eastern corner of Spain — as simple as that.

Locally, though, you will hear a very different story. The majority of Catalans do not regard themselves as Spanish at all, pointing to their separate language and their strong sense of history and culture — with the rose and book-giving traditions of Sant Jordi’s Day, which does not take place in any other parts of Spain, a fine example.

Indeed, the feelings of many natives were summed up on Wednesday by one of the most high-profile supporters of Catalan independence — and a potential future president of the state, if such a position ever becomes available.

Pep Guardiola is a former football Barcelona player and manager who is now in charge of European champions Bayern Munich. By coincidence, his team happened to be playing away to Real Madrid on Sant Jordi’s Day, prompting an unsuspecting German journalist how he felt to be “back home” in Spain.

Guardiola’s reply was simple but succinct: “Catalonia is my home, and it is not Spain.”

One of the main arguments in favour of independence is the Catalan language, which is entirely distinct from Castilian Spanish rather than just a dialect, as many people initially believe.

Catalan is one of four existing “Romance” languages to have derived from Latin, along with French, Italian and, yes, Castilian Spanish.

Catalan’s use throughout the province is ubiquitous, even in the tourist-friendly capital Barcelona, where all administrative paperwork is conducted in the local language and, for example, it is also the first listed in restaurant menus; visitors looking for the famous local side dish of bread with tomatoes may be surprised to see “Pa Amb Tomaquet” rather than the

Castilian version of “Pan Con Tomate”.

Appeals for independence are nothing new. Historically, in fact, Catalonia was an entirely distinct nation for many centuries, enjoying great wealth due to its vast naval power and control over Mediterranean trade routes. For a brief time, its expanse even stretched as far as Italy and Greece, and some parts of modern-day southern France still regard themselves as Catalan.

People cast mock ballots on Catalonia’s secession plan during Sant Jordi’s day in Barcelona April 23, 2014. Spain’s recent economic slump has renewed Catalonians’ agitation for independence. — Picture by Reuters

Catalonia’s status was gradually eroded due to a series of inter-marriages between Europe’s royal families, and independence was lost for good in 1714 when Barcelona was besieged and defeated in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Since then, Catalonia has officially been part of Spain — sometimes more begrudgingly than others. The most bitterly contested period was during and after the Spanish Civil War, which was eventually won by General Franco whose republican zeal led him to ban the public use of the

Catalan language and heavily suppress any expression of Catalan identity.

Since his death in 1975, however, the Catalan culture has reasserted itself, with the latest peak in patriotic sentiment provoked largely by the financial crisis endured by Spain in the last five years.

The catalyst is the fact that Catalonia, with its tourism and industry, generates a lot more revenue and, therefore, pays a lot more taxes than other parts of Spain, leading Catalans to feel aggrieved that they are effectively subsidising the failing parts of the country.

The most visible appeals for independence are launched via Catalonia’s most successful and most famous export: Barcelona’s football club.

Fans (of the team and of independence) use home games — especially against Real Madrid — as an opportunity to state their case in front of the watching world, while pro-independence chants sweep around the stadium after 17 minutes and 14 seconds of every half of every game, referencing 1714, the year of annexation to Spain.

Despite the popular support, independence remains a long way off. The Spanish government is firmly opposed to the move, fearing the break-up of Spain (the Basque region, for one, could follow suit if Catalonia is successful) and the loss of vital revenue. Considering that opposition, it was no surprise when Spanish politicians rejected with a huge majority an official Catalan appeal to hold a referendum on the subject. Undeterred, Catalan officials are determined to push ahead with a vote later this year, which will now be called a “consultation” rather than a “referendum” to avoid provoking Madrid’s ire with an unconstitutional act.

Ultimately, though, the independence movement will probably prevail. For many Catalans, celebrating their own patron saint, speaking their own language and cheering on their own football team just isn’t enough: they want their own country.

@andywest01

First published in The Malay Mail on Sunday 27 April

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Catalonia from Switzerland

When writing this speech in French before having it translated into English, a language I am not that fluent in, I asked myself two questions:

a)   Would it be right or fair of me to voice opinions here in person in this forum at Utrecht about the Catalonia issue?

b)   How might Switzerland be interested in understanding what the realities are in Catalonia today and could Switzerland’s past and neutrality have something to add to the debate?

It is self-evident that the Catalan origins have something to do with me being here before you today. Over ten years ago, initially through the history of the Barcelona soccer club, I became interested in Barcelona, the city, its history and the history of Catalonia. As for my wife, who cannot stand football, she understood even more clearly the importance of Catalonia’s history through the history of Barcelona’s famous soccer club. The history of Barça is written large in Catalonia’s past. Barça’s past has similarities with Switzerland’s past too. Indeed, Switzerland knows much more about Barça’s past than Catalonia’s. That’s simply because one of the founders of Barça was Swiss, a Swiss-German speaking the local dialect called Hans Gamper whose daughter still lives in the French-speaking region of Switzerland at Nyon. Hans Gamper, known as Joan Gamper in Catalonia, scored a goal in the first ever Barcelona-Real Madrid El Clásico match on 13^th May 1902 which Barcelona won 3-1. This Swiss-German also campaigned for Catalonia’s independence, As a result, he was forced into exile. Despite his his enthusiasm for life, because of this exile, he had to suffer a huge depression. As condition for his return to Catalonia, he was obliged to promise not to get involved again with the club he had helped to found. He could not stand the unfairness of this and committed suicide in 1930. The La Vanguardia newspaper of 1^st August 1930 reported on the huge crowd that attended Joan Gamper’s funeral. Coincidentally, that also happens to be Switzerland’s National Day. General Franco vehemently objected to the decision to name Barcelona’s stadium after him. Gamper was a foreign national and a Protestant who had committed suicide, and who was a liberal and pro-Catalonian independence. And to add insult to injury in Franco’s eyes, he had changed his Swiss-German first name from Hans to the Catalan Joan. For the Franco regime, Joan Gamper was taboo.

I fervently believe the issue of Catalonia itself must not be treated as a taboo subject neither for Europe nor for Switzerland. Judging by the reactions of Madrid, it is safe to say the Spanish authorities would prefer it if the Catalonia issue were taboo. However, the role of those who want democracy and citizens’ right of free speech to prevail is to do their utmost to ensure these democracy and individuals’ rights of free expression are not just voiced, but real action taken.

The Swiss Federal Charter is considered to have existed since 1291. For historians, unlike the politicians and the general public, it has been clear for some considerable time that the founding of the nation of Switzerland cannot be dated back to the Middle Ages. That is an invention born out of the need to wipe from the memories the troubles of the Sonderbund civil war in the mid-19th century which briefly saw catholic and conservative cantons, including my canton of birth, Valais, clashing with radical, protestant and progressive cantons. Nurturing this myth was vital for the birth of the Swiss nation-state.

The first Swiss Federal Constitution dates back to 1848, but, in effect, what really underpin Swiss constitutional law are the right of referendum, which did not come until 1874, and the right to the popular initiative, introduced in 1891. In 1891, the Swiss celebrated for the very first time, six hundred years on, the original charter dated 1^st August 1291. It is easy to see that Switzerland, like Catalonia, is keen on marking those symbolic numbers and dates. It is also clear from this that the establishment of Switzerland as a nation-state does not go that far back in time.

Today, Switzerland’s population is just over 8 million. Under the Federal Constitution, 100,000 Swiss citizens can request complete or partial amendment to the Constitution by submitting a popular initiative. Moreover, Federal legislation and international treaties can be submitted for popular vote, through an optional referendum if 50,000 citizens ask for it. That is what is called direct or semi-direct democracy in Switzerland.

In recognition of Switzerland’s traditions and reputation for diplomacy and mediation, the Palais des Nations was built in Geneva from 1929 to 1936. It is decorated with superb frescoes by the Catalan artist José Maria Sert. These portray the idea of international brotherhood.

Switzerland’s domestic constitutional past and my country’s ability over time to act as an accomplished mediator on the international stage seem to provide, in my view, sound guarantees that Switzerland will not duck the whole debate about Catalonia. I was one of the first in Switzerland to declare that Switzerland should strive to understand what is really at stake in Catalonia and to be involved one day perhaps in its journey to independence. We all know this process of gaining independence will not be exclusively driven domestically, but will also have to be resolved beyond the borders of both Spain and Catalonia.

Switzerland itself had to cope with a process of independence inside its own country. The long path ended on 24 September 1978 when the 26^th canton of the Confederation, Jura, was created. Obviously, the creation of a new canton inside a Federal state cannot be compared constitutionally with Catalonia’s desire for an opportunity to vote on becoming an independent state. Nevertheless, I think we can compare the wishes of the Jura inhabitants no longer to form a part of the canton of Berne with the desires of the Catalonians no longer to be part of Spain. It should be remembered that the canton of Berne in the end agreed to conduct a series of popular votes to ascertain what the people of the Jura region really wanted. Those popular votes ended up with the canton of Jura being set up.

The questions to be put to the Catalan people on 9 November 2014 must be equated to that of a popular vote or plebiscite. If we were to make a comparison with Swiss constitutional law, I would say that we are talking more about the rights and law associated with popular initiatives rather than the referendum. That comparison may be splitting hairs somewhat as, in formal terms, the Spanish constitution does not make provision for any right to have a popular vote based on a popular initiative.

When referring to a region in Eastern Europe, Switzerland’s President, Mr Didier Burkhalter recently commented very clearly that, if the people do have to be consulted on an issue about the status of autonomy, it is something that has to be managed carefully. He was specifically referring to the wish to extend the autonomy of a region. In his opinion, it was up to the region to decide on its future. If we paraphrase him, I would say it is up to Catalonia to decide on its future.

This right for Catalonia to follow the path of its independence is, in my view, clearly enshrined in the right to self-determination, the right of people to make decisions for themselves. This right is broadly stated in the United Nations Charter and in the two 1966 international covenants on human rights. The right to self-determination is regarded as a basic human right in international law.

Spain will object to this argument as its constitution prohibits any such split. I would simply remark that, to my knowledge, the introduction of the Statuts of Autonomy recognizes Catalonia as a nation. By virtue of the principle of the primacy of a higher-ranking right, the principle of self-determination of peoples as laid down in international law ranks above Spanish domestic law.

That said, when putting this argument forward, I am not overlooking the fact that laws are only instruments of power, rarely of justice. As a result, all the approaches made by Spain’s leaders to international authorities, neighboring countries, the European Union, its friends and allies, in far-flung corners of the world, will underpin the legal position and reinforce Catalonia’s right of self-determination and eventually persuade Spain, through the power of justice and the principle of self-determination, to negotiate financially Catalonia’s exit.

Failure to talk about the role of the language today would be a mistake, indeed a serious shortcoming. You are probably all aware that, on 9 February 2014, Switzerland voted against mass immigration. This choice made by Swiss voters, by a very slender majority of 50.3%, was widely interpreted throughout Europe as a vote against foreigners. However this is a simple view of the matter. Although the factor of an expanding non-Swiss population in the country obviously did play a part in the electoral decision made by the Swiss people, it should be remembered that the traditional stances of the conservative parties struck a chord with another phenomenon, the large number of Germans living in Switzerland. Germans make up the biggest proportion of foreigners in Switzerland. Moreover, in spring 2013, Germany figured on the list of countries on which the Federal Council had activated an exceptional clause for restricting the free movement of people. This German presence in reality raises a basic cultural issue, the question of language. There is a typically Swiss inferiority complex with regard to speakers of a language that is not really their own. The clash between the pure version of German, ‘Hochdeutsch’, and the dialect of German spoken in the Swiss-German regions, ‘Schwyzerdütsch’, is key. The vote registered in Swiss-German areas, as many commentators have pointed out, harks back to that pact of 1291 and fears about Swiss identity purely and simply disappearing.

I believe that, if there is one country that can understand the position of the German-speaking regions of Switzerland as regards the importance to be given to the language used, it is indeed Catalonia. Respect for the identity of a people is rooted essentially in respect for the language they speak and use.

When almost 80% of the population or of a nation want to vote to determine their futures, Europe and Switzerland, by their common past, their personal histories, their separate histories, cannot really refuse the Catalan people a vote to determine what they want. If they did, they would be denying them their fundamental values, their belief that citizens have the right to choose, that citizens have the right to design their own institutions, that citizens have the right to appoint their leaders and representatives, that citizens have the right to alter the course of their history.

These are the values, the values of freedom and solidarity, which give the right to any citizen of the world, be they Swiss and neutral, from Valais and socialist, to declare here in Utrecht that common sense and justice must direct us to allow Catalonia to relish, in peace, calm and harmony, that historical day to come on 9 November 2014.

Stéphane Riand

Socialist Party Member of the General Council (Sion, Switzerland)

Utrecht, April 8th, 2014

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Former Loyalist NBA Player Pau Gasol Switches Side

 

One of the many positive aspects of today's Loyalist microdemonstration in Barcelona (7,000, less than 1/200 of the participants in the 9/11 Catalan Way human chain) is the backfiring of Spanish nationalist attempts to gather the support of some Catalan celebrities who at some time in the past had publicly spoken out in favour of Catalonia's current colonial status. Perhaps the best known among them was Pau Gasol, who plays for Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. Among other utterances, Gasol once said “I consider myself Catalan, but also Spanish”. Some days ago, the microdemonstration's organizers posted a video where he appeared saying this, but Gasol reacted by refusing any support for the microevent. In a Tweet he refused cooperating, stressing that the use of footage was unathorised.




WHAT DOES THIS TELL US? LOYALIST RANKS ARE SUFFERING A HIGH RATE OF DESERTION

There is no doubt about the significance of Pau Gasol's words. We are talking about someone who had openly embraced Catalonia's colonial status in the past, defending it not one or twice but on repeated occasions. Furthermore, we are talking about somebody based in the US, for whom it would be very easy to discreetly stay silent until he got final confirmation of which side was to ultimately prevail. However, Gasol has played it smarter. Instead of waiting until Catalonia formally declares independence, he has preferred to take a step forward a bit earlier, and now that it is clear that Catalonia is leaving Spain but when there are still those who persist in daydreaming otherwise, he has Tweeted his goodbye. Goodbye Loyalist organizations and parties. Goodbye. Nothing lasts for ever. “Even the longest, most glittering reign must come to an end some day”, as FU would say.

Alex Calvo

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A Catalan sportswoman is insulted in Twitter for putting the Catalan flag and has to delete her Twitter account

A Catalan sportswoman is insulted in Twitter for putting the Catalan pro-independence flag as part of her name and has to delete her Twitter account

Roser Tarragó is a Catalan sportswoman who recently took part in the Swimming World Championships held in Barcelona with the water polo Spanish team, where she won the gold medal, together with 8 other Catalonians. In water polo, the teams have a maximum 13 members, out of which 7 play (6 and the goalkeeper) and the rest are substitutes who sit on the bench. 

Unfortunately, during the last few days the name of Roser Tarragó has been a lot in the media, and not for her achievements in sports. Tarragó had to delete her Twitter account after receiving insults from unionists, some of a political nature, but most of them personal. And what was the reason for that? She had the symbol of the Catalan pro-independence flag, as you can see in the picture below. 

After this incident, a lot of people showed their support for her via Twitter, with the hashtag #totssomrosertarrago in solidarity with her. These are some examples: 

Marc ||*|| #DUI @MarcRedalbs 

Spain, what a great democracy...#TotsSomRoserTarrago

Pere Meroño @perermerono

Without respect, good manners, acceptance of plurality, coexistence is not possible. We need to leave. Goodbye Spain. #totssomrosertarrago

Sergi Castells#joERC @sermt

And now we have to affiliate with those who insult our sports people because they think differently. #totssomrosertarrago #independenciaJA

Ferran Cobo @ferrancobo

Massive support in Twitter for Roser Tarragó http://m.vilaweb.cat/noticia/4137542/20130804/twitter-bolca-suport-roser-tarrago.html … @vilaweb And then they are surprised that the National Anthem is booed! #totssomrosertarrago

ivan tibau @ivantibau

Everybody has the right to express their feelings freely and with respect. We are with you Roser!!! GO FOR IT!!! #totssomrosertarragó




Roser Tarragó has played both with the Spanish team and the Catalan team. Last April, Tarragó said that she was very happy to have been able to represent Catalonia because she could defend her “colours”.

Her case is similar to that of the Catalan hockey player Aleix Fàbregas who, some months ago, had to delete his Twitter account when he was insulted and threatened after saying that he never thought that he was representing Spain.

References:

http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/4137542/20130804/twitter-bolca-suport-roser-tarrago.html

http://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/57629/roser/tarrago/darrera/victima/catalanofobia/esport

http://www.esport3.cat/noticia/2158119/poliesportiu/Roser-Tarrago-tanca-el-seu-compte-de-Twitter-pels-insults-rebuts-per-tenir-una-estelada-al-seu-perfil

http://www.lavanguardia.com/mundial-natacion/20130805/54379157872/roser-tarrago-twitter.html

http://ecodiario.eleconomista.es/deportes/noticias/5045134/08/13/Roser-Tarrago-de-las-guerreras-de-waterpolo-presume-en-Twitter-de-independentismo-catalan-con-la-estelada.html

http://ecodiario.eleconomista.es/deportes/noticias/5045134/08/13/Roser-Tarrago-de-las-guerreras-de-waterpolo-presume-en-Twitter-de-independentismo-catalan-con-la-estelada.html

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/vidadigital/2013/08/05/waterpolista-roser-tarrago-insultada-twitter-mostrar-estelada/00031375691731935865539.htm

http://www.seleccions.cat/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12499%3Acatalunya-debuta-internacionalment-amb-un-triomf-sobre-gran-bretanya-16-10&catid=1%3Anoticies&Itemid=36&lang=en

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Catalan-Kurdistan Car Racer Dreams to Honor His Roots

After winning races in Europe, Isaac Tutumlu Lopez dreams one day of racing in Kurdistan to honor is paternal roots.


“This is my dream and I want to do as much as I can for it to become true,” said Lopez, 28, who was born in the Barcelona to a Spanish mother and a father from Turkey’s Kurdistan region.“My father separated from my mother when I was only one-year-old and I have lived my whole life with my mother. I used to see my father every week or every two weeks,” he said. Lopez adds that he is proud of his Kurdish and Catalan roots, noting they have a lot in common. Like Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Catalonia is autonomous, has its own language and culture, and talks of one day gaining independence.


“They are two countries fighting for the same aim and with a very extensive history, culture, and language. For me to represent a Kurdish village and race all over the world is an honor, and I hope I can continue doing this for many years,” Lopez said.


The young driver has won several racing competitions, among them the Catalan Touring Car Championship, Nissan 350Z Challenge, Runner up in the Spain's Cup "de Resistencia", and Nevada Cup Radical Master. He says that his passion started when he was only two-years-old and that until the age of 15 he practiced on go-karts.


“At the age of 15, my mother told me that if I wanted to continue with go-karts I should work and pay my own way, and this is what I did,” said Lopez. “I was studying, and at the same time I was working every afternoon in a warehouse, and with the money I earned I paid for my go-kart races.”His first real race was at age 21, when he entered the Mitjet Series of the Albacete Circuit, where he won against 30 drivers.


Lopez once visited the Kurdistan Region and presented the Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani with a T-shirt from Lionel Messi, signed by the president of FC Barcelona along with an invitation to attend a match at the team’s Camp Nou stadium.


“The president was very happy as he is a fan of FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi,” Lopez said.“In that meeting I also explained to President Barzani that I was a racing driver and my idea was to create a team where all the Kurds and our country, Kurdistan, could be represented, with the main objective of making the world know about Kurdistan,” Lopez said.



He believes that Kurdistan is still a long way away from organizing international standard racing championships.“It will be a really difficult job because it is not only the construction of a race track, it is also constructing all the infrastructures necessaries to bring an International Championship,” he said. “At the same time it is important that more people in Kurdistan become aware of racing and I hope that through my work this ends up happening.”

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War, repression and exile (II)

The Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) was caused by a military revolt against the 2nd Spanish Republic. As a consequence, Spain became a divided country, one part in favor of the Republic and the other under the orders of the military forces that led the revolt . But the civil war was a social war as well, since as a response to the military revolt, a social revolution started which caused the Republic to lose certain institutional power and eased the access to power by the anarchist movement that fought for the Republic.

Josep Sunyol Garriga (1898-1936) belonged to a wealthy family dedicated to trade. He studied Law at the University of Barcelona and got his degree in 1920. In 1925 he became a member of Footbal Club Barcelona and, in 1928 he joined the club’s management team. In 1927 he started cooperating with the newspaper La Nau, directed by Rovira i Virgili and, in 1929 he worked for La Nau dels esports, a Catalan weekly magazine linked to La Nau.

From 1929 to 1930 he chaired the Catalan Federation of Football. Sunyol was connected to Acció Catalana, when Rovira left and founded Acció Republicana de Catalunya in 1930; he continued in the party and founded La Rambla, a newspaper about sports current events. However he was suspended in April 1930 and he reappeared in La Rambla de Catalunya, and spoke about topics such as the revision of the Garraf matter and the amnesty for prisoners and exiles.

In 1931, once the 2nd Spanish Republic was declared and before the Spanish general elections in June, Sunyol withdrew from Acció Catalana Republicana (a result of the merger of Unió d’Acció Catalana and Acció Republicana) and he became a candidate for Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). He was elected member of the Parliament of the Spanish Republic (1931-1933) as part of the Catalan delegation. In 1933, he was elected again representing ERC.

From 1933 to 1934 he chaired the Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya. In 1934 he was elected chair of Footbal Club Barcelona, although he resigned for healthy reasons;  in 1935 he was elected again and he held office until he died. At the beginning of the Civil War (July 1936) he went to Valencia and Madrid. From Madrid he went to Guadarrama in order to visit the front lines and encourage the republican soldiers, but he was arrested by the pro-Franco troops; together with two of his companions he was shot immediately without any previous trial.

Bibliography:

1. “Josep Sunyol. The other murdered president” (1996), Solé i Sabaté.

2. “Sunyol, the murdered Barça chair” (2011), Carles Llorens.

3. “Josep Suñol i Garriga, to live and to die for Catalonia” (2011), Jordi Badia.  

Francesc Bonastre

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A Country - Spain - at the Service of a Football Club - Real Madrid

I won't defend anyone who doesn’t follow the rules; if someone is caught breaking a law, they must pay for it. However, FC Barcelona has recently become a constant target for the right wing Spanish press, and mostly Madrid's. In the last few weeks they have been having a grand time at Messi’s expense. So it seems like a good time to air out some of the dirty laundry in Real Madrid’s history.

1. The Spanish government approved a law in 2006 that dramatically reduced the income tax rate for foreigners, from 43% to 24%, during the 5 first years of Spanish residency. The goal was to attract “qualified people,” but the real shocker was that this law was passed just as David Beckham was being signed for Real Madrid, so the club and the player reaped big from this law, so much so that this law is known as the “Beckham Act.”
 
2. The journalist Carles Torras has just published a book, La historia oculta del Real Madrid (The Hidden History of Real Madrid), explaining the whole network of friends and political influences that brought Real Madrid to be known as “the government’s team.”

3. It is surprising that several polemic corruption cases like the “Bernabeu's corner” (a public library project converted into a mall) or the “Sports City” (where the city council paid €22 million for terrains with a theoretical value of €488,000) have been forgotten. Nobody defended the Tax Administration’s interests then the way they do now with Messi. And conversely, FC Barcelona has never enjoyed such kind treatment form the Spanish administration.

4. Suspicions of different treatment for Real Madrid come to mind nowadays with all the gossip surrounding Real Madrid's big star Cristiano Ronaldo’s renewal in 2015, the year in which his contract with Real Madrid is up. The new contract will have to meet the new law modified in 2010 that would increase the tax rate from 24% to 43%. It is unbelievable that Messi is on the spot because of tax fraud but not Cristiano and Real Madrid, all due to preferential treatment by the Spanish administration. A close follow up on this will be necessary.

5. The Spanish national football team won the World Cup in 2010. The bonus for this cup was paid in South Africa (where the World Cup took place), and not in Spain, in order to avoid any interference by the Spanish Tax Administration. This has not been an issue of concern in Spain, compared to the aggressiveness shown against Messi’s finances. We are talking millions of euros here.

Other remarkable cases

6. In 1973 —in contrast with the easygoing treatment to Real Madrid— Barça had to overcome the reluctance of the Foreign Currency Office of the Minister of Economy in order to free up the funds needed to pay Amsterdam’s Ajax for the transfer of Johan Cruyff.

7. Back in 1972, loose interpretation of the legislation allowed Real Madrid and other clubs to hire players from South America with Spanish family links. Meanwhile, FC Barcelona got only denials (the Argentinian player Heredia lost 1 year before he was allowed to come to Barça). 

8. The Di Stefano affair (1955): the famous player was taken away from Barça, who had already signed him up, due to the intervention of high government officials to secure his irregular transfer Real Madrid 

 
9. The case surrounding Jose Plaza, President of the Referees Committee (1965-1989,) who meanwhile was personally in charge of referee nominations for the Spanish league, and who was successful in barring FC Barcelona from winning League Championship. 

10. FC Barcelona had earned a special entry in the Spanish police’s secret files as a “subversive organization” for decades. At one point, FC Barcelona faced a 6 month shutdown of their stadium for booing the Spanish national anthem.

11. It is well known that the President of Catalonia Lluís Companys was put before a firing squad by Franco’s executioners, but it is also true that FC Barcelona’s president was also shot dead by fascist troops during the Spanish Civil War. 

FC Barcelona President Josep Suñol
murdered by Spanish nationalists

Real Madrid has enjoyed full complicity from all kinds of high ranking government officials —from Rubalcaba, Rajoy, Wert nowadays, to Inocencio Arias, Raimundo Saporta, and others in the past— as well as government workers in mid-level positions. It is no coincidence that Real Madrid’s scenario has witnessed the biggest influx of major public works in Europe in the last decade. This is a clear example of misusing the central government’s resources for spurious purposes, crony capitalism. The Cibeles model. A corporate culture rooted in the environment of economic interventionism, the friends and the favors with which Real Madrid benefits on their own behalf using the structures of the state, which is light years away from the Catalan business culture. and which all by itself would justify independence for the Catalans.

In Madrid they have a clear view that they must attack Catalans (not with weapons quite yet) by land, air and sea, and that’s precisely what they do. All is fair against the Catalans. And FC Barcelona is a key piece for Catalonia, they know it. With Messi’s case they can put Catalans in a tight spot: either we disown Messi or we support a criminal. It's a clever tactic they can use because they control the state apparatus against us. Messi’s case coincided with other contentious proceedings in the court of law, and all this was translated in Madrid’s newspapers as a Sicilian-style Catalonia, a huge Corleone family. Madrid wants to spread this false image in order to damage the Catalan cause. If we have to be honest about it, any resemblance to Corleone’s affairs is closer to Madrid and the central government administration.

Àlex Furest, Economist


Spanish

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One Mountain at a Time

The association Som Països Catalans (We Are the Catalan Countries) organized the initiative Som Cims (literally, We Are Peaks, as in mountain peaks) during the Saint John’s weekend (June 22 to 24), which is a traditional celebration now considered by many to be the national day of all Catalan speaking countries.

Several groups and associations organized hikes in order to climb and visit different peaks in the Catalan Pyrenees (Canigó and Puigmal), in the coastal range (Matagalls, Tagamanent and Turó de l’Home), in País Valencià (Serra de Callosa), and in the islands of Majorca (Galatzó), Menorca (Mont Toro), and Eïvissa (Sa Talaia).

Organizers said this was a special initiative which themselves described as a “popular de-centralized mobilization” aimed to reinforce “national cohesion.” On the whole, as many as 80 peaks were climbed up thanks to the dozens of associations and several hundred of mountaineers, trekkers, and climbers. 

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