Financial Times: "Habrá crisis constitucional en España"
"El mensaje catalán". Así se titula el editorial que el Financial Times publica en su edición digital y que reproduzco integramente abajo -insertar el enlace en la entrada del blog no permitiría visualizarlo a lectores sin registrar-
El editorial vaticina que en un escenario sin crisis Rajoy y Mas acordarían un nuevo modelo fiscal, pero la prioridad del Gobierno central en solucionar la emergencia económica, se traducirá en que la reunión que los dos mandatarios llevaran a cabo el próximo 21 acabe en fracaso. Artur Mas volverá con las manos vacías y convocará elecciones anticipadas que se convertirán en un referéndum independentista, según el diario.
El texto habla del éxito de la manifestación del martes, en la que un millón y medio de ciudadanos salieron a las calles y afirma que la España plurinacional construida tras la dictadura franquista, tiene serios riegos de romperse. Sería la primera vez en el que la crisis en la Eurozona no hace caer sólo un Gobierno sino que va más allá al poner en duda la supervivencia de un estado-nación como España.
El editorial añade que los catalanes están indignados porque a pesar de ser relativamente ricos aportando un 9% de su PIB a las arcas del Estado, (el editorial se equivoca pues no es un 9 sino un 19%) tienen luego que pedir el rescate para pagar sus deudas como si fueran mendigos. Y sigue afirmando que Catalunya quiere autonomía fiscal, el derecho de recaudar todos sus impuestos como los vascos, que contribuyen proporcionalmente mucho menos a las arcas españolas.
El Financial Times en su editorial prosigue afirmando que "el PP es ideológicamente hostil al autogobierno e intenta utilizar la crisis para recentralizar España, creando un cocktail peligroso de penuria fiscal y resentimiento nacional"
September 12, 2012 7:28 pm
The eurozone crisis has brought down more than one government but until now it has not called into question the survival of the nation state itself. Yet that is what appears to be happening in Spain, a development dramatised by this week’s outpouring of separatist fervour in Catalonia.
On Tuesday, up to 1.5m Catalans rallied in the streets of Barcelona behind the slogan “Catalonia, a new state in Europe”. The plurinational Spain, built upon a highly devolved system of regional government after the end of the Franco dictatorship, now risks break-up.
More
ON THIS STORY
- Crisis fuels Catalan independence push
- Rajoy stance sets stage for EU stand-off
- Video Analysis Review - The eurozone fragments
- Video ECB must spend, spend, spend to defend plan
- Barroso calls for EU ‘federation’
EDITORIAL
The eurozone crisis is partly to blame. It has mercilessly exposed the fragility of Spain’s fiscal arrangements. In this case, the relatively rich Catalans are outraged that they have to contribute up to 9 per cent of annual economic output to the central pot in Madrid, but then go cap-in-hand for a bailout to meet their debt and payroll commitments. Catalonia wants fiscal autonomy: the right to collect its own taxes like the Basques, who contribute proportionally much less to Spanish coffers.
Yet Spain, where prime minister Mariano Rajoy is agonising over whether to seek a full eurozone bailout, needs Catalan fiscal transfers to meets its pensions and welfare liabilities. Mr Rajoy’s rightwing Partido Popular government, which is ideologically hostile to devolution, is trying to use the crisis to recentralise Spain, creating a dangerous cocktail of fiscal penury and national grievance.
More than half of Catalonia’s citizens now believe its future is in peril if they remain tied to a Spanish state they feel can no longer accommodate their own sense of nationhood. By contrast, Spanish nationalists disdain Basque and Catalan identity as narcissism, and regard the unity of Spain as sacred.
Both sides need to realise that mainstream nationalism has been outflanked in Catalonia. Artur Mas, the Catalan president, has a decisive meeting with Mr Rajoy next week. He will demand fiscal autonomy, either as the bridge to enhanced home rule or a building block for full independence.
Ideally, both leaders would agree on a better fiscal model, which would include fairer transfers from richer to poorer regions. This should be explored – but not now, when the priority must be to address the economic emergency. Mr Mas will more probably come away empty-handed, and call an early election that will become a referendum on Catalan independence. A constitutional crisis looms.
