The news came through the phone, some messages in Facebook, some in Whatsapp. The Guardia Civil (Civil Guard, the Spanish police institution) arrested last week 14 people involved in the celebration of the referendum to be held this Sunday in order to hinder and prevent the voting.
Foix and Andrea, who arrived in Varazdin from Barcelona almost a month ago, received the news with anger and sadness but also resignation. The Spanish government lead by Mariano Rajoy has been fighting against the plebiscite since Carles Puigdemont (Catalunya’s president) announced its celebration on June. So, the news weren’t really news for them.
“I think it’s really sad something like this is happening in a country that’s supposed to be a democracy”, argues Andrea, who’s working now at Vanima, when asked about the topic. She was born in small town between Barcelona and Tarragona. Her mother tongue is Spanish but she speaks catalan without problem thanks to a bilingual education.
This conversation is being held in Catalan, of course. Foix and Andrea knew each other way before coming to Croatia. They met in their hometown and had been friends since then. It is curious to observe and listen how some Spanish words slip into their everyday catalan rambling.
“From here, I can avoid but feel helplessness”, explains Foix, “if I was there, I could at least go to the demonstrations”.
The mobilisation of police presence to act against the voting on the 1st of October has triggered indignation among people from Catalunya and the rest of Spain.
It might have also made opposing forces unite in favour of the referendum: Andrea’s family and Andrea herself might not be in favour of the idea of an independent Catalunya but they want to be able to express their opinion in the matter. On the other side, the Spanish government defends that the referendum is illegal based on the Constitution and is taking measures such as police action and arrests to prevent it. Meanwhile catalan institutions refuse to cancel it.
Andrea’s father is from Malaga, half of her family is living in this city from Andalucia in South Spain. “I don’t want to have to cross a border to visit my family” tells the 22-year-old girl. She feels Spanish but when asked in Spain, she would say she’s from Catalunya “just like my aunt would say she’s from Malaga”. Her situation is common in Catalunya, since it’s one of the Spanish autonomous regions with more immigrants from Spain and other countries.
Foix, working here in the Technology Park, was raised in a catalan family. Both of her parents are from small towns in Catalunya and at the beginning of her studies she moved to Barcelona, considered one of the less independent cities in Catalunya “because there is more variety of people”, Foix formulates as an opinion. A matter of coincidence has her flying back home for the weekend of the referendum.
“For me the independency is an opportunity to gain some distance from a system that I considered obsolete”, explains Foix. For her, the catalan autonomous government has been able to perform better than Rajoy’s conservative government in the last years. “I will not accept any kind of independency though.” Siding her national sentiment as catalan, lays also a wish for the independence to be an improvement of the social issues raised in the country.
Andrea is reluctant, “From an emotional point of view, I wouldn’t say yes to independency”, for her being and feeling catalan is possible within the Spanish borders, “but sometimes I think this border could pose an advance if we take a pragmatic approach”, she gives more details, “the independency could mean more money for education or health service, for instance.”
The question to be asked on Sunday is “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent country in the form of a republic?” For a lot of people leaving behind the Spanish monarchy is an important argument in favour of Catalonia. Moreover, many Catalans have felt attacked by the Spanish central government in the last few years: when the constitutional court revoked some parts of the charter on Catalan autonomy that expanded the region fiscal power and rejected Catalan being the preferential language over Spanish.
“During these years, I think that the government has attacked a culture I feel like mine”, a slight tinge of annoyance visible in Foix’s explanation.
This last week has been hectic. The referendum is almost the only thing Spanish media can talk about. Foix and Andrea haven’t stopped receiving messages about it and probably won’t stop even after the voting on Sunday. Regardless of the results, the conflict will go on: no one knows what will happen after Sunday.
> NAŠE KATALONKE Foix i Andrea s nestrpljenjem čekaju referendum o neovisnosti