Catalonia’s president, Pere Aragonés, has wanted Madrid’s independence since he joined the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) as a teenager. Despite the obstacles that stand in his way, he is now inspired by two votes held in the UK: the Scottish independence referendum and Brexit.
Aragonés resumed talks with the president of Spain’s socialist government, Pedro Sánchez, last month, almost five years after an illegal referendum on Catalan secession triggered a constitutional crisis. But despite Madrid’s willingness to talk, he is up against a Spanish establishment that is as unionist now as it was in 2017.
Two seemingly insurmountable obstacles stand in the way of those seeking an independent Catalonia: the 1978 Spanish constitution, with its commitment to “the indissoluble unity of Spain,” and a prime minister fundamentally opposed to a referendum. But Aragonés is not discouraged: the 39-year-old tells me there are several paths to a legal referendum, if the Spanish establishment shares what he calls the “political will” of the Catalan government. It is here that he thinks of Scotland.
“(One) way,” he tells me, “is to transfer the power to hold a specific referendum, temporarily or permanently, from the Spanish government to the Catalan government, as in the Scottish independence referendum.”
Aragonés is referring to the Edinburgh Agreement, in which David Cameron temporarily transferred authority from Westminster to the Scottish government led by Alex Salmond, allowing Scotland to vote for independence in September 2014.
The complexities that would follow if the Catalans decided to secede from the rest of Spain, Aragonés insists, could be worked out later. Here he points to another of Britain’s most controversial political dramas: Britain’s exit from the EU.
“The best example of this (what to do after independence) is Brexit. After the referendum, there were negotiations with the EU to manage the consequences and finally present the result of the referendum”, he says.
There are also other mechanisms that could be used to legitimize a Catalan independence vote, according to Aragonés. He cites Spain’s 1980 Referendum Law, which allows referendums to be held anywhere in Spain, provided they are requested by the monarch and approved by parliament.
“If there is an agreement between the governments of Spain and Catalonia, then I am absolutely convinced that we will find a way to organize a referendum,” he said.
The last independence referendum in Catalonia was anything but approved by the state. The chaotic vote took place on October 1, 2017, despite having been declared illegal beforehand by the Spanish Constitutional Court: of the 43% of Catalans who participated in the vote, 92% voted for independence. The then president, Carles Puigdemont, immediately fled to Belgium, where he remains in exile, but twelve of his companions have been imprisoned.
The Supreme Court of Spain has handed down prison sentences of between nine and 13 years against separatists, after convicting them of disobedience, embezzlement of public funds and sedition; all were acquitted of the most serious crime of rebellion, which carried a sentence of 30 years. But in June 2021, after almost four years behind bars, they were pardoned by Sánchez and released from prison. However, these nine politicians and activists are still subject to lengthy bans from doing politics. Aragonés says that pardons are welcome but not enough.
“The (Spanish) government believes that it has taken a very important step,” he says, “but the pardons are not complete… The idea that I discussed with Sánchez (during the meeting on July 15) was: ‘OK, you’ after get the leaders out of prison, now the risk is that people who were part of their teams could also go to prison’.
The president is referring to dozens of Catalans who are still awaiting trial for their involvement in the failed attempt at independence. Ten mayors and 50 senior officials are among those awaiting their turn on the bench, according to the Catalan NGO Omnium. However, if the orchestrators of the referendum have already been released, why are other officials accused of the same crimes still at risk of imprisonment? It is a legitimate question, especially when his alleged crimes consisted solely of expressing his political opinions, as the Catalan government maintains.
The Spanish judiciary, executive and monarchist power see things differently. As separatists protested across Barcelona in the days after the Supreme Court verdicts were announced, King Felipe VI condemned the 2017 Catalan referendum in a rare televised speech, accusing Puigdemont of “irresponsible conduct (which) could even endangers the economic and social stability of Catalonia and all of Spain. Sánchez said the sentences were “the conclusion of an exemplary judicial process.”
For Aragonés, however, the interpretation of sedition by the Supreme Court is too broad: as defined by the Spanish Penal Code, it requires a “public and tumultuous uprising” and the impediment, “by force or outside the legal means, the application of the law”. His argument is that if sedition is applied to the events of 2017, it could also affect all peaceful demonstrations, which violate the right to freedom of assembly. In a report published last June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended that Spain reform this aspect of its legal system and pardon anyone who continues to be investigated for their role in the referendum. Aragonés describes this report as his “guide” in the conversations with the President of the Spanish Government.
More than 20 years after joining ERC, Aragonés’ political convictions remain unchanged: “The best way to achieve an equal and prosperous society in Catalonia is for it to become an independent state.” He is not afraid of obstacles and is not even discouraged by the prospect of a prison cell. “The most important goals in personal and political life are always very complicated,” he says with a smile.
