Living together is cheaper

Basques and Catalans are concerned about the cost of separatism

In June, Catalonia will hold a referendum on the new status of this autonomous region in northeastern Spain. It must abolish the current status, which has existed since 1979. If the plebiscite has a positive outcome, the Catalans will be recognized as a nation, and their language will become official in the region along with Spanish. The main thing is that more than half of the tax revenues will remain in the local treasury, which will make the dynamically developing region richer and more attractive for investors.

There is little doubt that Catalonia's new status will be approved by the overwhelming majority of its seven million population (in total, 40 million people live in Spain). After all, it consolidates much of what the Catalans have been striving for since the 15th century, when they were annexed by force to Castile.

At the end of last week, the Spanish Parliament by a majority vote (189 to 154) already approved the project put up for referendum. Deputies from the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and, of course, nationalists of the Basque Country, Galicia and the Canary Islands voted in favor. The right-wing opposition People's Party, the Left Republicans of Catalonia and one of the Basque parties spoke out against it.

The Catalans, however, said that the document does not fully satisfy their requirements. There is criticism from the other camp as well. Thus, the leader of the People's Party, Mariano Rajoy, is convinced that the new status of Catalonia is a “veiled revision of the constitution” and “the beginning of the end of the Spanish state.” “We have planted a time bomb that can explode at any moment,” he concluded his speech in parliament pessimistically. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega answered him: “If the Spanish constitution guarantees our joint project of cohabitation, then the new status of Catalonia only contributes to its strengthening. And if so, then there is no threat of the collapse of the state and the disintegration of Spain.”

However, from the draft of the new status previously approved by the regional parliament in Barcelona (the capital of Catalonia) in Madrid, the reference to “the right of Catalonia to freely determine its future as a people” was removed, which could be interpreted as the right to self-determination and secession from the Spanish state.

To be fair, it should be said that since the mid-90s, Catalonia, like other autonomous regions of Spain, gradually and despite pressure from nationalists, ceased to demand the right to self-determination from the central government.

And even the most irreconcilable opponent of the central authorities - the Basque group ETA - announced the cessation of the “armed struggle for the creation of a sovereign Basque state” in Spain and neighboring France as of March 22 of this year. This struggle was waged for more than 30 years, including through terrorist methods. The only problem now is the banned Basque party Batasuna (considered the political wing of ETA, but acts almost independently). Its leader Arnaldo Otegui, who is under arrest, promises to torpedo the negotiations if his party is not included in them.

The separatists' refusal to demand secession from the Spanish state was largely due to economic reasons. This has just been convincingly proven by two Spanish professors. Their figures suggest that the prosperity of the Basque Autonomous Region, where more than 3 million people live, is incompatible with its secession from Spain (now the standard of living of the population in the Basque Country and Catalonia is much higher than the Spanish average).

Spanish scientists prove the advantage of living together even using the example of the former USSR. Thus, a professor of economics from the Complutense University in Madrid, Mikel Buesa, studied the processes of disintegration of the USSR and Yugoslavia. According to him, “they led to a profound economic recession, which was caused by a sharp reduction in trade exchange” between the constituent entities of the federations. The professor cites the example of Ukraine, “where shortly after independence was declared in the early 1990s, gross domestic product fell by 70%.”

Ignacio Zubiri, professor of public finance at the University of the Basque Country, notes that “formal independence of the autonomies would also mean leaving the European Union, introducing a new currency and disrupting trade with Spain.” More than 50% of exports from the autonomies go to Spain, about 30% to neighboring EU countries. In addition, more than 60% of imports come from Spain. So the independence of the autonomies would inevitably lead to a collapse of established export-import flows. Scientists say that local treasury spending on social needs would also increase. Indeed, now almost half of the funds for pensions and unemployment benefits come from the central government in Madrid. For the Basque Country, for example, this is a very significant amount - 3-4 billion euros per year.

Alexander ZDITOVETSKY, Madrid-Lisbon