IN years to come, Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont may come to blame the British, and more particularly Brexit, for the failure of his bid to have his province of Catalonia break away from the rest of Spain. The EU has become highly sensitive to any further evidence of disunion and that is why on Monday night, Puigdemont found himself in a German jail.
Last October, following a disputed referendum, Puigdemont declared unilateral independence for Catalonia. The Spanish government in Madrid was having none of it and took over the province, causing Puigdemont to flee with four confederates to Belgium. Spain issued European arrest warrants. However, in December these were dropped by a Spanish judge, who nevertheless warned that Puigdemont and his fellow independence politicians could all still face charges, including treason.
The lifting of his arrest warrant probably persuaded Puigdemont to travel to Finland for a conference. But four days ago, Spain re-imposed the warrants. Hearing that the Finnish authorities wished to detain him, Puigdemont fled to Denmark, it seems by sea. It was as he was crossing from Denmark into Germany on his way back to Belgium that the German police arrested him.
There have been angry Catalan nationalist demonstrations in the regional capital Barcelona where fury had already been stoked by the government’s arrest of other hardline nationalist leaders.
Madrid has been criticized for its unflinching response to the Catalan independence bid. In particularly national police sent into Barcelona behaved with well-publicized brutality when they broke up nationalist demonstrations. But there is no escaping the reality of the political disaster Madrid was facing. By declaring independence, Puigdemont and his fellow independence leaders left absolutely no room for negotiation. Catalonia, like the northern Basque Province already enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. Catalan independence would very probably have led in the end to the same claim from Basque leaders and might also have affected a third culturally distinct province, Galicia.
Madrid’s reaction was therefore necessarily unwavering and firm to the point of harshness. What Puigdemont and his fellow conspirators had done amounted to treason for which they could yet serve up to 30 years in prison. The referendum on which they based their unilateral declaration of independence, was not authorized by the Spanish government, which indeed did everything it could to frustrate the vote, including seizing ballot papers and shutting down local printers.
The Catalan nationalists painted a picture of a rosy future in which an independent Catalonia would enjoy prosperous relations with the rest of the EU and revive its historic past as a vigorous nation of traders. Less emphasis was placed on the former country’s history as freebooters and mercenaries. There may once have been a time when Brussels would have looked with sympathy on Catalan independence but not now. Indeed, Puigdemont and his fellows were guilty of misleading their supporters and more importantly culpable of astonishingly bad timing. As the EU loses the UK as an important member, the very last thing that it would entertain would be the break-up of Spain. The attempt to grasp independence was doomed from the outset. Puigdemont was a dangerous dreamer who raised ridiculous hopes and led his supporters down a complete blind ally. His dreams have now crashed to earth and landed him in a German prison cell while Catalonia is in ferment and Spain has been destabilized.
