Catalonia, a non-sovereign nation of Spain, is making a comeback in international relations, and for us, this will translate very concretely into the opening, in the fall, of a delegation in Quebec and a commercial branch in Montreal. .
“Return”, explained yesterday with enthusiasm, on the phone, Victòria Alsina Burgués, Catalan Minister of Foreign Action, since in 2017, the Spanish central government had completely deprived her of it!
Madrid “then closed the entire network of delegations that we had around the world using article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, an article which temporarily suspends the autonomy of a region”, explains the one who yesterday completed a mission of a few days in Quebec.
It is obviously the organization of the referendum on the independence of Catalonia, on October 1, 2017, which had aroused the ire of the Spanish government, and its invocation of article 155, a first since the introduction of this article. in the fundamental law in 1978.
In the eyes of the central government, this consultation (the “yes” had won by 90%; the participation had been only 42.4%) was illegal, without effect since it “seriously undermined the interest general of Spain. The Catalan Parliament was dissolved.
The effect of 155 fell after the holding of legislative elections in subsequent years. Hence the “return” of Catalonia on the world stage.
Distinctive language, desire for autonomy: the parallels between Catalonia and Quebec are legion. Without having been banned from international relations, Quebec has struggled to develop one since 1960. One of the books recounting Quebec’s attempts in these matters is called L’Art de l’impossible (by Claude Morin, 1987).
Spying
Another fascinating recent parallel: the espionage, by the secret services of the central State, of the militants and politicians of independence.
In 1973, the RCMP led “Operation Ham”: they stole the list of members of the Parti Québécois. Several key figures in the movement will be bugged. Shortly after coming to power, the Lévesque government launched the Keable Commission on police operations in Quebec. The federal government put obstacles in his way; it will respond with its own investigation, the McDonald Commission.
Not without paradox, it was in Toronto, on April 18, that the “Catalangate” was unveiled, a scandal that is not without resonance with certain RCMP operations against “separatists” in the past. It was the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto that revealed the spying, using Israeli software Pegasus, on the phones of some 65 Catalan activists and political figures.
“They spied on the last four Catalan presidents, including the current one! “, indignantly the diplomat.
The “most serious” according to her: the lawyers of the Catalan political prisoners were “infected” by Pegasus, when they were preparing the defense of the accused, who had been arrested after the referendum. It is, she is indignant, “a clear violation not only of political rights, but of fundamental civil rights! »
In all civilized countries, she insists, the secrecy of the relationship between the lawyer and his client is sacred. It therefore wishes to denounce these violations “on the international scene”. In particular by asking the European Parliament to look into the use of spyware in the Union.
Damaged trust
In addition, the Catalan Parliament will launch its own commission of inquiry into this case. Of some 65 cases of spying on separatists, Madrid has recognized around 20, says the diplomat. But the central government “maintains that it was legal”.
According to Alsina Burgués, the Catalans demand that the Spanish government in turn investigate this case. It is even a sine qua non condition for any resumption of talks on the future of Catalonia between the Region and Madrid.
“You can imagine that the level of trust in a government spying on you while you are negotiating with them is pretty low! »
