<div dir="ltr"><h1 itemprop="headline" id="story-heading" class="story-heading">Catalonia Calls Election in New Bid for Secession From Spain</h1>
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<p class="byline-dateline"><span class="byline" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">By <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/raphael_minder/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by RAPHAEL MINDER"><span class="byline-author" itemprop="name">RAPHAEL MINDER</span></a></span>AUG. 4, 2015
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<span class="caption-text">Pro-independence graffiti in the town of Viladamat, in the Catalan countryside.</span>
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Samuel Aranda for The New York Times </span>
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<p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-1">BARCELONA, Spain — A year ago, secessionist movements were all the rage in Europe — until they were not.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">After a nerve-rattling campaign, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/world/europe/scotland-independence-vote.html">Scots</a>
narrowly voted in September to remain part of Britain. Two months
later, Catalonia’s drive for an independence referendum fizzled into <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/world/europe/catalans-vote-in-straw-poll-on-independence-from-spain.html">a nonbinding vote</a> after being thwarted by Spanish courts.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">But
if Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain breathed a sigh of relief that
the issue was behind him, he has reason again to worry.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Catalan
politicians have managed to revive the independence issue. Setting
aside personal and political rivalries, they have formed a broad
alliance of candidates whose aim is to turn a regional parliamentary
election scheduled for September into a plebiscite on breaking away from
Spain.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Should
their alliance secure a majority in the Sept. 27 vote, the secessionist
leaders say they will proclaim independence within 18 months.</p>
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Related Coverage
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<ul><li>
<a class="story-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/world/europe/jordi-pujol-defends-legacy-in-catalonia-independence-drive.html">
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<span class="story-heading-text">As Catalonia Weighs Independence From Spain, Leader Seizes Spotlight</span>SEPT. 26, 2014
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<p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-2">The
election, which was formally called on Monday by the Catalan leader
Artur Mas, puts the thorny issue of Catalan independence back at the top
of the national political agenda, just ahead of general elections
expected before the end of the year.</p>
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<span class="caption-text">Raül Romeva, leader of the
pro-independence coalition Together for Yes. The group aims to turn a
regional parliamentary election scheduled for September into a
plebiscite on secession.</span>
<span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
<span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
Samuel Aranda for The New York Times </span>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">If
nothing else, the quick return of the issue has demonstrated that while
an independence referendum may have been previously blocked by Madrid,
the grievances that animate Catalonia’s secessionist drive have yet to
be addressed.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Those
grievances have long included a mix of Catalonia’s distinctive language
and identity as well as complaints that the region, one of the richest
in the country, has been economically squeezed to subsidize poorer parts
of Spain.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">The
pro-independence coalition in Catalonia, which calls itself Together
for Yes, while not unanimous, is broad enough to present a credible
threat.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">While
Mr. Mas is expected to remain Catalonia’s regional president should the
joint ticket win next month, Together’s list of candidates is
officially led by a consensus candidate, Raül Romeva, who recently
returned to Catalan politics from Brussels, after spending a decade as a
Green member of the European Parliament.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-3">“We
have reached a point of no return,” Mr. Romeva said in an interview.
“These are not normal but exceptional elections, whose goal is to find
out whether there is a majority in favor of independence or not.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Mr.
Rajoy, however, says his government and Spain’s courts will once again
strike down any Catalan decision that violates the Spanish Constitution.
At the same time, statements from him and his government have grown
more threatening.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">“Nobody
is going to steal from Catalans their triple status as Catalans,
Spaniards and Europeans,” Mr. Rajoy told reporters on Tuesday. “Nobody
will break up Spain in any way.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-4">Spain’s
justice minister, Rafael Catalá, warned last month that, if Catalonia’s
leadership violates the Constitution, Madrid was empowered to
effectively seize control of Catalonia’s administration and suspend its
regional autonomy.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Mr.
Rajoy and Mr. Mas have been at loggerheads for three years. What
started as a financial dispute over the tax contributions Catalonia
should make to the rest of recession-hit Spain has turned into a
full-fledged secession battle.</p><div id="marketing-ad" class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent"><div class="accessibility-ad-header visually-hidden">
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</div><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-5">The
Catalan leader has also been emboldened by street protests in favor of
independence — the next of which is scheduled for Sept. 11, Catalonia’s
National Day.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Mr.
Rajoy and Mr. Mas have in some ways benefited from feuding about
Catalonia’s future, at a time when both men have been undermined by
corruption investigations relating to the financing of their respective
parties.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">For
Mr. Rajoy, it has allowed his governing Popular Party to present itself
as Spain’s flag-bearer while highlighting the ambivalence of other
national parties toward Catalonia, notably Podemos, an insurgent
far-left party that is competing in its first general election.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">But Mr. Mas has struggled to define his plans for Catalonia, beyond his vision of independence.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">“Mas
has spent more time defending the right to independence than explaining
what kind of independence and country he wants,” said Salvador Garcia
Ruiz, chief executive of Ara, a Catalan newspaper that has backed
independence.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">While
Mr. Mas talked on Monday about leading “an ancient nation that has the
right to decide its own future,” divisions remain even within the
pro-independence camp.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-6">Teresa
Forcades, a nun who recently took a leave of absence from her convent
in order to campaign for independence, said in an interview that she
opposed the joint list of candidates under the Together banner because
it would allow Mr. Mas to forge ahead with the kind of public spending
cuts that have been part of his conservative economic agenda.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody" id="story-continues-7">“You
cannot hide the wallet behind the flag and use this election as if it
was an independence referendum,” she said. “Nobody should forget Mr. Mas
is a neo-Liberal politician just like Mr. Rajoy, with the only
difference that he’s Catalan.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Mr.
Romeva, the coalition leader, acknowledged that asking Catalonia’s 7.5
million citizens to elect lawmakers based solely on their stance on
independence was problematic, especially at a time of high unemployment
and concerns over political corruption.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">“All
our attempts to do things in the correct and most democratic way have
been denied and on top of this with a belligerent attitude of bringing
things to court,” Mr. Romeva said. “Would we have wanted to do it like
in Scotland? For sure, but we have now at least on Sept. 27 the right to
vote legally.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Mr. Romeva said Catalonia first needed to gain control of its economy before considering how best to improve it.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">As
part of their secessionist plans, Catalan officials have recently
talked about setting up an autonomous Catalan tax agency, based on the
fiscal model of countries like Sweden and Australia.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">“These
elections aren’t about presenting an economic program — they go beyond
that,” Mr. Romeva said. “A lot of the things that we want to do and
change in terms of social economy and policies first require gaining
resources that we don’t have today.”</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">But
by calling a Catalan election a year ahead of schedule, Mr. Mas is
forcing Catalans to confront their future without first finding out
whether Mr. Rajoy can win another general election.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">In <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/world/europe/ruling-party-loses-hold-as-leftists-surge-in-spain.html">elections in May</a>,
Mr. Rajoy’s Popular Party lost control of Madrid’s city hall, as well
as Valencia and other regions that it had long dominated.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">Some here clearly preferred that the Catalan leader had waited.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">“It’s
not that Catalonia has reached a point of no return, but rather that
we’ve reached a complete breakdown in communications, which Rajoy has
done nothing to improve, making it also easier for our own politicians
to sell the nonsense message that we’re somehow smarter than the rest of
Spain,” said Carlos Rivadulla, the deputy president of Businessmen of
Catalonia, an association of entrepreneurs who oppose Catalan
independence.</p><p class="story-body-text story-content" itemprop="articleBody">“If
the Popular Party doesn’t win the next election,” he added, “I’m sure
there will be room for a new dialogue and to change radically the
situation.”</p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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