IRAQ-SPAIN: Anti-war Sentiment Spreads to New Fronts

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Mar 28 2003 (IPS) - More than nine of 10 Spaniards consulted in an official poll said they oppose the U.S.-led attack against Iraq, while their discontent with their own government – which supports the war – is seen in the rise of nationalist demands and criticisms against the monarchy.

In late February, 90.8 percent of the people surveyed by the state-run Centre for Sociological Research said they were against military intervention in Iraq, announced the secretary of State for parliamentary relations, Jorge Fernández, during the press conference Thursday in which he presented the results of the poll.

The survey confirms what is seen in the ongoing and massive demonstrations against the war in many Spanish cities, the largest protests in the country’s history, say experts.

An appeal from the non-governmental ‘No to War’ Platform mobilised people to send anti-war e-mails to the website of the ruling Popular Party (PP), and within 48 hours they had paralysed the site, according to the peace group.

The strong opposition to the policy of the centre-right government of José María Aznar, of the PP, has encouraged demands for greater autonomy by nationalist Basques and Catalonians, and to lesser extent the nationalist movement of the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory off the western African coast.

Pascual Maragall, candidate for the presidency of the northwestern autonomous community of Catalonia and local president of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), on Wednesday presented the bases to the Catalonian parliament for a new Autonomy Statute to be negotiated with the central government.

Maragall, former mayor of the province’s capital, Barcelona, is demanding "recognition of Catalonia as a nation," a considerable increase in its autonomy and progress towards making Spain into a federal state.

The stance of the PSOE, Spain’s leading opposition party and one without a nationalist bent, turned out to be important and unexpected backing for the Catalonian nationalist movement.

Accompanying the nationalists’ demands has been a notable increase in the presence of Republican flags and criticisms against the monarchy in the anti- war demonstrations.

When dictator Francisco Franco (1939-1975) took power – which he would maintain until his death – he put an end to Spain’s republican political system. The democratisation of the country, at the hand of King Juan Carlos who became head of state, though without executive powers, included the acceptance of the monarchy by all political parties, which all defined themselves as "republican".

At the time, the majority democratic nationalist movements of the northern Basque Country and of Catalonia accepted the unity of Spain as a nation, but did not renounce the option of seeking self-determination in the future.

The constitution, in place since 1978, organised the country into 17 autonomous communities, with local legislative and executive branches. The Basque Country and Catalonia also were authorised to have their own police forces. But none of the 17 was granted the right to self-determination.

The national government maintains in all communities its police force and civil guard, a militarised force under the ministries of Interior and Defence, as well as the national armed forces.

The constitution reserves the power of the Spanish parliament to legislate for the entire country, and the central state holds exclusive authority in foreign relations, security, defence, judiciary and border control. In other areas, power is delegated to the local governments of the autonomous communities.

Also centralised – except for the Basque Country – is the collection of income tax, with Madrid distributing a portion of the revenues among the autonomous communities. In the Basque case, the local government collects taxes and passes a portion on to the central government.

Demands for self-determination or independence echo loudest in the Basque Country, where the illegal organisation ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque homeland and freedom, in the Basque language) has a long history of violent actions and assassinations.

But both in the Basque Country and Catalonia those in power are of moderate nationalist leanings.

The local ruling parties oppose violence but uphold the right to self- determination.

The new Autonomy Statute proposed by the PSOE would grant Catalonia the right to bring its tax system into line with that of the Basque Country.

Maragall also argues that the Catalonian state should be autonomous in administering justice, with no reliance on the Spanish judiciary, and should maintain its own permanent representative before the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, though "in coordination with the Spanish state."

One of the most controversial aspects of Maragall’s initiative is that it would give Catalonia the right "to participate, with other nations or peoples of the world, through the state and the EU, in an international order governed by the United Nations Charter and the principles unique to advanced democracies."

The PSOE also proposed Wednesday that the Catalonian government should have sole power over the police forces acting in the region, in other words, it should take command of the Civil Guard and National Police detachments in Catalonia. Or Madrid should withdraw them, says the proposal.

A similar demand was put forth in the Basque Country by the moderate nationalist parties.

Also on Wednesday, Iñaki Anasagasti, spokesman for the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), issued some harsh criticisms against the king and the monarchy. The PNV has been the governing force in the Basque Country ever since the first elections under the 1978 constitution.

Anasagasti responded to King Juan Carlos’s exhortation that the parties engage in dialogue about the Iraq war saying that the monarch is in the Aznar government’s employ "as a totem, used only for inaugurations – of expositions, conferences and other public events – and reprimands against nationalism."

What Juan Carlos said "is pure rhetoric… we must put an end to so much hypocrisy," said Anasagasti. "It is unacceptable that the king should blindly follow what is dictated by the government."

The PP chastised Anasagasti for his "profound lack of respect" for the Crown and for the "integrational role of the king."

Prime Minister Aznar told a Thursday meeting of Catalonian business leaders that he opposes "moves that undermine the constitutional consensus," in clear allusion to Maragall and other nationalists who are speaking out.