Spain Runs Electoral Math With Barcelona Clogged by Separatists
Spain Runs the Electoral Math With Barcelona Clogged by Protests
(Bloomberg) -- Protesters continued to disupt rail and road travel as unrest flickered across Catalonia a day after a Madrid court handed down jail sentences totaling 100 years to separatist leaders who tried to split the region from Spain in 2017.
Demonstrators blocked several highways while the high-speed rail service north of Barcelona to Girona was disrupted by damage to the track. Vueling, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, said 20 more flights from Barcelona airport would be canceled on Tuesday after 100 cancellations on Monday, a spokesman for the company said by phone.
Meanwhile, the government is investigating who has been marshaling the disruption, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said. “We have an efficient intelligence service and we’ll end up knowing who is behind this,” he told state broadcaster TVE.
The Supreme Court’s decision to imprison a group of separatist leaders for their attempt to break away from Spain in 2017 sparked protests across the region as the movement sought to focus international attention on the issue. With the country heading for a general election next month, the bigger question is how voters in the rest of Spain will react.
Spanish politics has been dominated by Catalan separatists’ demand for independence since the illegal referendum two years ago. But Monday’s Supreme Court verdict -- nine separatist leaders were sentenced to up to 13 years for their part in the drama -- may prove a watershed.
Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has to hope efforts to reignite the chaos of two years ago will fail, allowing him to turn the page on a period of bitterness. His opponents -- whether that’s the separatists in Catalonia or the Spanish nationalists aiming to prevent him taking power again -- are betting on the protests to rile up their support all over again.
“It’s a situation that provides some good ammunition for parties more on the political extremes,” said Alex Quiroga, a lecturer on Spanish political history at Newcastle University in England. “For Sanchez, it’s not so easy because he’s in a more defensive position.”
Monday’s flash protest at the airport was announced unexpectedly at 1 p.m. and saw demonstrators quickly fill up large parts of the main hall, leading to a confrontations with riot police. Some protesters walked more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city center to join the throng after activists shut down the main metro connection. About 10% of flights were cancelled.
Pep Guardiola, current manager of English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City, issued a video statement condemning the high court’s ruling as a “direct affront to human rights.”
“This is unacceptable in 21st century Europe -- Spain is experiencing a drift toward authoritarianism,” he said. Neither Sanchez nor any of his predecessors has been “brave enough to deal with this crisis with dialogue and respect.” Guardiola, a pro-independence Catalan, demanded that the Spanish government sit down for talks and called on the international community to intervene to find a solution.
Spain has to respect the decision of the court reached after a transparent and irreproachable legal process, acting Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told reporters on Tuesday.
“The judges are not there to solve political problems -- they are there to implement the law,” said Borrell. “We live in the a democratic country and conflicts have to be solved by dialogue.”
The political fragmentation left behind by the financial crisis and the Catalan independence push has meant Sanchez has been unable to muster a majority despite winning April’s election, forcing him to try again Nov. 10.
In his first public reaction, the premier pledged to ensure the sentence was enforced and urged the country to move on.
“A new era is opening up,” he said. “Over the next few days, the government of Spain will remain vigilant in its commitment to safeguarding co-existence, security, and respect for democratic legality.”
Opinion polls before the verdict showed backing for the Socialists is broadly stable while the conservative People’s Party and the Spanish nationalists of Vox have added support. As polls stand, the most likely outcome from new elections is still a parliament in deadlock.
PP leader Pablo Casado reacted to the verdicts by pledging tougher laws and tougher sentences in the future while calling on Sanchez to rule out pardons for those convicted.
But Sanchez has also hardened his message in recent weeks, defending his decision to avoid a coalition with the anti-austerity Podemos party, which is softer on separatism.
“Sanchez has re-positioned himself with a tougher stance to put a lid on critics from the right-wing parties and force them to accept his institutional role,” Pablo Simon, a Madrid-based professor of Political Science at Carlos III University, said by phone.
--With assistance from Thomas Gualtieri and Jeannette Neumann.
To contact the reporters on this story: Charles Penty in Madrid at cpenty@bloomberg.net;Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills, Robert Jameson
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