Reason 39: Only way to ensure a proper national security

The jihadist attacks in Catalonia have brought to light the inefficiency of not being independent and of having a state that works against the interests of the citizens of Catalonia.

The Spanish authorities continue to deny, even after the attacks, the access of the Catalan police to international information alleging lies (Spain’s vice prime minister, saying that it is Europol who decides this, which is a lie, and the minister of defence saying that only the national police have access to it, which is also a lie, since both the basque police and the Scottish police have access and they are not police corpses of national reach).

The Spanish media have also lied, saying that the CIA has already warned the police, which has been denied *. They have also lied associating the Catalan process of independence with jihadism. There is no connection what so ever.

The Spanish police knew that the Ripoll Imam who directed the attacks had a criminal past and did not notify the Catalan authorities **.

In 2015, the Catalan police discovered and reported that the Spanish national police had warned a group of jihadists that the Catalan police were following them ***

Just one month ago the Spanish government blocked to open 500 new vacancies for Catalan police.

The Spanish police hiding information and sabotaging the work of the Catalan police in favour of a terrorist group, blocking the access to international information... there is no doubt that under Spanish rule we are paying taxes for a state to work against us, putting the security of the citizens of Catalonia in danger. And it is clear that only with independence we can have a proper national security, which defends the population instead of putting it at risk.

*http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/atemptat-puigdemont-precisa-que-els-mossos-no-tenen-contacte-directe-amb-la-cia/

http://www.elnacional.cat/en/politics/spain-mossos-cant-join-europol_184965_102.html

**http://www.elplural.com/politica/2017/08/23/habriamos-enviado-los-mossos-la-ficha-del-iman-dandole-un-simple-boton

***https://elpais.com/ccaa/2015/05/14/catalunya/1431598005_517906.html

http://miquelstrubell.blogspot.nl/2015/05/yihad.html?m=1

Reason 38: Only with the independence we will be able to decide by ourselves a proper abortion law

Late 1936, the Government of Catalonia created the first abortion law in the Iberian peninsula and one of the first in the world. 

With the abolition of the Republic, due to the coup d'etat of General Franco and the fascist victory at the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan law was abolished. 

It was not until 1985, with Act 9/1985 , abortion was allowed in Spain, but only in three cases: serious physical or mental health problem of the mother, rape or malformations of the fetus. 

In 2010 they created the new Act 2 /2010, which expanded the possibilities for abortion.

Now, in 2013, the Spanish government wants to create a new law that will restrict abortion even more than it was in 1985.

Catalonia was one of the most advanced countries in the world in this regard. Spain forced us, against our wish to remain in the nineteenth century for most of the twentieth century.  

This is another example that it is too difficult to improve too many things as long as we stay under Spanish rule. We Catalans cannot decide almost anything. There is clearly a cultural difference between Catalan and Castilian mentality. This difference makes us want to decide by ourselves how we want to organise ourselves, and Spain will not allow it. They do this with our education system, with our cultural activities, and also by revoking any law they don't like, such as the Catalan prohibition of bull fights. 

We Catalans want to decide by ourselves instead of being subordinated to the mentality of the neighbour country (Spain), that do not (want to) understand us and think in a different way than us. This difference has nothing to do with being better or worse. We are just different. 

This difference is reflected in the difference between the Catalan and the Spanish political spectrum. 

Therefore, my conclusion remains : we need a state of our own in order to normalise what we already did in 1936. 

More information (Catalan):

Més informació: 

http://www.academia.edu/3214856/Lavortament_legal_una_historia_sense_final

http://www.elperiodico.cat/ca/noticias/politica/oriol-junqueras-leleccio-sera-entre-pais-nou-lespanya-dels-2965392 

(image source: http://cortobert.cat/2013-05-31-no-a-retallades-en-drets-de-les-dones-a-lavortament/)

Reason 37: Only way to stop getting a discriminatory treatment from the Internal Revenue Service and other services

For the past ten years, Catalonia has led the ranking of tax audits from 2004 until 2011. This is the main conclusion from the data that the Spanish government has made public after the ERC group asked Congress on this matter.

The Catalan Republicans have been insisting on this issue for more than ten years. They had the feeling, and it has been confirmed, that Catalan employers received more pressure from the Spanish Internal Revenue Service (HMRC in the UK). So Catalans citizens, again, get an increased pressure that helps  to finance the rest of the state. According to these figures, in Catalonia there were 45,000 inspections, which represents 19% of all Spain.

During the period of the readjustment of the Catalan Organic law “Estatut” the pressure was the strongest, for example in 2005-2006 in Catalonia were 7,000 inspections while in Madrid in 5000 and received 4,400 Andalusia. 2012 is the only time that Catalonia is a leader in tax revisions, 3782 against 4172 in Andalusia.

But also other financial sources that in theory are set up to reinforce the law, hit Catalonia harder than other Spanish nations and regions: Spain has many more speed radars in Catalonia than in the rest of the Spanish state. The Circle of Catalan Business (http://www.ccncat.cat/en) reported that Catalonia there are installed 23.4% of fixed radars in Spain with only 7.4% of kilometers of roads, so that the Catalan nation has four times per mile more radars than the rest of Spain.

But the saddest aspect of this facts is not that Spain has been doing this for the past 300 years. The saddest thing (for them) is that they have no intention of changing anything. Today in the USA Obama has demanded Danny Werfel, official of the budget office of the Internal Revenue Service to resign. He is held responsible for doing something the administration is not suposed to do: To apply extra scrutiny to certain groups of society. In the case of USA, the target were conservative groups. The result of this: “he has to be held fully accountable and resign. Because the IRS as an independent agency requires absolute integrity.” Therefore he must resign.

Spain has been doing this for several years to Catalans and here nobody is asked to resign. Spain is different.

As a matter of fact, this kind of attitude has been going on ever since 1714, at least. Obviously there is here only one solution possible. With an independent state Catalans will not be extra targeted any more, and if they are, at least the money will not go somewhere else. Under Spanish rule I am positive this will never end. I think it will even get worse as Spain’s economy gets worse.

• http://www.elpuntavui.cat/noticia/article/3-politica/17-politica/640602-catalunya-lidera-les-inspeccions-fiscals.html
• http://www.directe.cat/noticia/294224/confirmat-hisenda-ha-cosit-catalunya-a-inspeccions
• http://www.jornal.cat/noticia/19935/per-cada-radar-a-espanya-nhi-ha-quatre-a-catalunya
• http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/16/obama-to-name-budget-official-as-acting-irs-chief/?iref=allsearch

Reason 36: Best way to lower the risk premium, reducing public debt and, therefore, getting out of the crisis.

I've been trying to find information on the risk premium of the future Catalan State and unfortunately could not find any concrete data. The risk premium is going up and down constantly and it seems difficult to find meaningful data.

 However, I have read some articles that point to a lower Risk premium with independence. The conclusion I get is:
The new  Catalan state will discuss with Spain Catalan how much of the Spanish debt will take. This will only happen after there is an agreement. While there isn’t any agreement Catalonia will have the lowest debt in Europe, only 21% of the GPD.  Catalonia will agree taking a part of the Spanish debt with certain conditions, for example that Spain does not put obstacles  to the access of Catalonia to the EU or other international organizations (political, economic, sports, etc.). 
In any case, if Catalonia takes a big part of the debt, the debt won’t more than 75% of GDP. The exact calculations find them here: http://salaimartin.com/randomthoughts/item/424-la-falacia-de-la-deuda-heredada.html
This means that in the worst case scenario the Catalan state debt will far below the Spanish and also lower than the European average. Next to this it must be said that Catalonia will not suffer from the fiscal deficit and will have a surplus so it won’t be a problem to pay back the debt. This will mean that, as Catalonia will have a large capacity to pay money back, the status of the Catalan State will go from the current status ‘junk' to go towards having  a AA or AAA.

To this one must add that all blockades Spain aplies to Catalonia will vanish, and as a result of this the Catalan economy will grow and the situation will get even better. Spain has over the years (not worth to say how many, we should go back too far back in history) applied several laws  and measures against the interests of Catalonia. There are several examples:

·      It has blocked the access of Catalan companies to the global markets (embargo of intercontinental flights to or from Barcelona is an example),

·      It blocks the support of Catalan companies (not supporting Spanair is an example but there are several more, such as Gas Natural that was blocked from the access to purchase a Spanish company just because they did not want a Catalan company to be the owner of a Spanish company, in the end the Spanish company was sold to a German party),

·      not investing in necessary infrastructures in Catalonia, not investing what they promised, Spain promised 18% of the total budget for Catalonia in infrastructures, as they recognized they had been investing unreasonably too few,  the fact is that the past few years they did not fulfill their promise and only dedicated 11% of the budget to Catalonia the past years, but in the end only 4% was really spent.

·      Harbour of Barcelona, Catalan highways, Catalan railways, Airport of Barcelona, they all are ruled by Spain and in all these cases we have to pay higher tolls, higher rates than everybody else, and get less, we have to deal with outdated trains, a permanent lack of investments for decades, and a constant embargo of our access to the global world. This is not a sustainable situation.  This is an extreme financial strangulation.

(http://independentcatalonia.blogspot.nl/2011/07/reason-28-only-way-to-build-cargo.html)

·      Catalans pay 2.6 billion euros (2.600 millions) for culture and only half of that is spent in Catalonia, with an own state the entire amount will be spent in our country.

·      We must add that having an own State will lower the unemployment rates by default, as I mentioned in another post as we are paying now 200.000 Civil servants in Madrid and these jobs will go to Catalonia  (http://raonsperlaindependencia.blogspot.nl/2012/07/rao-47 -only-way-to-create-400000.html).

·      The new Catalan State will need teachers and Catalan translators and interpreters around the world. This also will employ a handful of people.

All these blockades will vanish and  the economy will grow, which under Spanish rule is impossible. This will further reduce the risk premium and also the Catalan debt if we do things well.
Catalonia will have all its taxes to invest in the own facilities and infrastructures, in its own companies and its own culture (just like any other country in Europe) and will not have any embargos or blockades (that we do have under Spanish rule) as the EU does not allow such a situation between countries. We have in the EU a guarantee of freedom, democracy and human rights and any company can do business in any other country of the EU. So, it is not a matter of creating new borders, it is just a matter of being able to decide for ourselves, as the neigbour country is deciding for us and this is not working.

 A Spanish publisher said they would go. I do not think they would, companies want to earn money and nobody wants to lose the oportunity to invest in a growing market. In these days of severe crisis, certainly of the publishers industry, what publisher would move to Madrid, that will become the mirror of Athens,  and lose the oportunity of being part of a growing Catalan publising industry as a result of Catalan independence:

(http://independentcatalonia.blogspot.nl/2009/09/only-way-to-have-500-magazines-in.html)

Conclusion: The new Catalan state will have great oportunities of development and the Risk Premium will be very low and whithin some years it could be between the lowest in the EU.

Other articles defending my arguments:

http://www.reusdigital.cat/index.php?command=show_news&news_id=28356

http://santtornemhi.blogspot.nl/2012/09/el-primer-argument-objectivable-de.html

Reason 35: No independence = boycott forever. Independence = end of boycotts.

<< Poster calling for boycott of Catalan products 1931. One of the reasons given by some Spaniards against independence is the threat of a boycot of Catalan products. It is not the first time Catalan products have suffered from a Boycott. In 1931 Spaniards called to boycott Catalan products. In 2005, with the negotiation on the new Catalan Organic Law “Estatut”, Spaniards called again to boycott Catalan products. The boycotts have never ceased. Some Spaniards keep track of what companies are Catalan and boycott their products. They have made dozens of web sites dedicated to promote this never ending boycott. What they don’t understand is that the volume of Catalan companies in the Spanish market, partially due to this never ending boycott, has diminished from 80% in the beginning of the nineties, to around 30% today.

Catalan companies understood long ago that the Spanish market was shrinking (and the boycott helped a bit to shrink it even more) and seeked to grow in the European market, with which export has grown and the biggest part of the export volume today is in European countries rather than in Spain. If 20 years ago the majority of the Catalan entrepreneurs saw a necessity to remain under Spanish authority, today the majority of entrepreneurs do not have Spain as the main market any more. As in the 1930’s entrepreneurs feared to loose their advantage to have Spain as market, today Spain is more and more becoming a residual market that does nothing else but shrink. So, not very interesting. The boycott isn’t the only reason why this is happening, but it helps. So I would say to all Spaniards who are working hard to boycott our products: THANK YOU!

Evern since 1931 Spaniards boycott our products. I do not see any reason why they would stop as long as Catalonia is under Spanish dominance. In any case, the effect of the boycott has been calculated and in the worst of the cases it would mean 4% decrease of the Catalan GPD. But as we have a deficit of 8% our economy would anyway grow by 4%. Spaniards sometimes also boycott products from other countries, such as the boycott to French products during the nuclear exercises they carried out in the Pacific Ocean in the 90’s. As long as I can remember Spain hasn’t done any boycott to former colonies who proclaimed independence from Spain last century. Neither does the UK boycott any products of the USA or Ireland because they separated from the UK. Independence might lead to a boycott during the first years. But one thing is sure: we are having boycotts already since 1931. I am positive Spaniards will not boycott forever products from an independent Catalan State in the EU. The boycott will become a historic anecdote of the times in which Spaniards depended on Catalans and Catalans on Spaniards. I think for Catalans this is history already. Video on the positive effects of Spanish boycott (in Catalan): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcH2dfX7oCA&feature=relmfu Article on the effects of a boycott: http://pepegins.com/2012/09/30/atenuacio-de-lefecte-boicot-sobre-els-productes-catalans/ Cercle català de negocis also has done some calculations on this matter: http://www.ccncat.cat/articles/informa/catalunya-superaria-un-boicot-comercial-espanyol-en-cas-que-el-pa%C3%ADs-es-declar%C3%A9s The images of the boycott you can find in several websites dedicated to this Spanish hobby that feeds us of arguments for secession: http://www.forocoches.com/foro/showthread.php?t=455504&page=9 http://www.stralunato.com/2006/12/05/sigue-el-boicot-a-los-productos-catalanes/ http://cosasdegely.blogspot.nl/2012/10/cataluna-no-es-espana-pues-ahi-teneis.html http://lapoliticadegeppetto.blogspot.nl/2012/04/ciclogenesis-explosiva-politica.html

Reason 34: Only way to create 200.000 vacancies in 24 hours and reduce unemployment in Catalonia by a third

One of the reasons I have vaguely spoken in this collection of reasons is labour. But up till now I hadn’t figured the way of counting how many jobs we miss in Catalonia as a result of not having an own state. Finally I have. The result is astonishing. We Catalans are so full that we are paying 200.000 Spaniards in Madrid to let them do our public duties proper of an independent state. We pay them to let them abolish our laws, we pay them so that they can barricade our access to the global world, we pay them so that they can bar the access of our culture and language to the international arena’s, we pay them so that they can prosecute Catalans and defend fascists, and we pay them to let them interfere in our Catalan domestic affairs such as education. From the day Catalonia becomes a European State we can stop giving these jobs to these Spaniards and create 400.000 vacancies in our own country in order to manage our own Ministries, our courts (that will finally defend Catalans instead of prosecuting them), our constitutional court, our immigration police and other institutions, our intelligence and our army, our passport services, our inspectors and advisors, our infrastructure specialists and institutions, our railroads, intercontinental airports and harbours, our institutions to promote Catalan language and culture around the world, our politicians in Europe, ambassadors, consulates, translators and interpreters and we are not even talking of all the private business that comes with it. We are talking, with investing 0 euro’s, spending as much as we are spanding today of decreasing the unemployment rate by a third!! (Unemployment of Catalonia today is 638.247, march 2012 ). All over the world we will need Catalan staff for embassies and consulates, we will need translators and interpreters, and by allowing intercontinental flights we will be able to multiply by 4 cargo commerce by air and also increase cargo commerce by ship from and to Barcelona. How many jobs shall bring a Catalan air company if Iberia does not steal all our intercontinental flights as they do now? We are speaking of thousands of jobs. Catalonia lives under an intercontinental embargo from Spain, that only allows some insignificant intercontinental flights from and to Barcelona. As a matter of fact, Spain has forbidden through more than 150 contracts to fly intercontinental from or to Barcelona. -- The way I counted this: Catalonia has got 3,4 million workers, of which 302 thousand are public jobs. This is 8,9%. The average level in Spain is 13,8 %. In Spain there are 19 million workers of which 2,6 million are public jobs. If the new Catalan state would have the same percentage of public jobs (which is not much for an independent state) we are paying 500.000 public jobs but only 300.000 of these jobs are in Catalonia. This means that with the Catalan state we can have this million jobs within the borders of our state, that is 200.000 extra people, working to develop Catalonia, instead of working against us.

In this graphic you can see that Spain does not have a high number of public jobs. This is due to the low level of welfare state. The countries that have the highest levels of welfare states have the highest percentage of public jobs. In this graphic you see the UK, has dramatically reduced the amount of public jobs (due to privatization), Holland and Germany a bit. Spain has increased the amount of public jobs. (Source: THE SIZE AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC SECTOR ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE, Heinz Handler, Bertrand Koebel, Philipp Reis en Margrit Schartzenstaller). Sources: http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0=3&V1=3&V3=1456&V4=1487&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=25&CTX=B http://analisiocupaciopublica.gencat.cat/default.aspx http://servicios.mpr.es/publicaciones/ http://www10.gencat.cat/gencat/AppJava/cat/actualitat2/2012/20403aturdelmarde2012.jsp

Reason 33: Only way to have and ensure (a real) self-government

When democracy was reinstalled after the dictatorship, Spain did not want Catalonia and Basque Country to have a ‘special treatment’. In order to give them a kind of self-government, they created the so called ‘State of the autonomies’, which consisted of a division of Spain into autonomic (reed regional) ‘governements’. Catalans and Basques thought that was a good idea and believed this would offer them enough competences in order to develop essential aspects of the Catalan and Basque nations. The fact the all the other regions got a self-government they never asked and they didn’t feel they ‘needed’ was irrelevant.
The Catalan government got several competences, such as Civil law, education or health care (1). During the last decades Catalonia has made several laws and applied most of them. But the Spanish government never abolished the Spanish ministries on these matters, even though they did not have these competences any longer. After more than 30 years of making laws Catalans can say today that living in Catalonia differs in many ways from living in other parts of Spain. A recent example is that bull fights are in Catalonia forbidden.
But the reality is that during this time Catalans have tried to play as if Catalonia was a sovereign country or a nation, while they had the competences any other Spanish region also had. We see our country, Catalonia as a nation, the Spaniards see it as a region. So, we Catalans played our ‘role’, in some cases through law making, and when law was not possible (blocked by Spain) we seeked for surrogate solutions (such as the stickers for car number plates with ‘CAT’).
But this Catalan dream seems to be coming to an end. The reality is that none of the competences has ever been transferred completely, and whenever a Catalan law does not like the Spaniards they annihilate it. Some of us woke up when the Spaniards reduced the new Organic law of Catalonia ‘Estatut’. And we can see how the Spanish ministries are more and more unsatisfied with the ‘State of autonomies’.
Even though the Spanish prime minister has said not to want to dismantle the ‘State of autonomies’, the idea is present within the Popular Party (PP) and within the Spanish population. This has come out lately in the news(2). The Spanish dream consists of Spanish supremacy all over the Spanish territory. And the ‘State of autonomies’ is a thorn in the eye of many of them. Many Spaniards (I think most) see as a logic, as proper, as a fundamental right to have equal Spanish education for everyone in Spain. This ensures their language’s supremacy. It also unifies content at school for everyone within Spanish borders (Spanish geography, history, literature, et cetera). Many Catalans can still remember a world like that (1939-1978).
This week Esperanza Aguirre (PP) declared her dissatisfaction with the ‘State of autonomies’. She spoke of taking back competences such as Civil Law, Education and health care.

A positive vote of PP and PSOE for such an idea could mean the end of the ‘State of autonomies’. They have got the majority and have shown to be capable of taking any step in order to ensure the continuity of a united Spain and the recovery of Spanish supremacy.
Today we can see the Catalan government does not seem to have any real competence, and even its existence is unsure as long as we remain under Spanish command.
Only becoming a sovereign state in Europe can ensure we will have real competences and will be able to really decide for ourselves without anyone else prohibiting us to be how we want to be.
As for now, the danger is getting bigger. I just hope enough Catalans wake up before it’s too late.

(1) http://www.gencat.cat/generalitat/eng/estatut/titol_4.htm
(2) http://www.directe.cat/noticia/193759/el-pp-engega-motors-per-liquidar-lestat-de-les-autonomies
(image ols Spanish school book: http://www.rafaelcastillejo.com/escuela-2.htm)