Independence ‘on standby’ in Catalan heartlands

High up in the Catalan highlands, Berga is a stronghold of pro-independence feeling. The star and red-and-yellow stripes of the region’s estelada independence flag hang from the balcony of its town hall; on its streets, the Catalan language is heard almost to the complete exclusion of Spanish; and since last year’s local election, 14 of the town’s 17 councillors are separatist.

However, the faded graffiti insisting on the validity of the 2017 independence referendum held in Catalonia is a reminder that, seven or eight years ago, separatist fervour was even more visible in Berga and other nationalist towns like it.

Now, independence remains a longed-for goal for many people here, but discussion of it tends to be more cautious than before.

“Independence is on ice at the moment,” says María, a housewife, who says she is in favour of a Catalan state. “But I wouldn’t rule it out.”

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She says people currently have other more pressing concerns.

“Right now priorities are work and unemployment and wages,” she says. “I want my children to have jobs and be able to live off that.”

Marseille is nearer than Madrid, underlining the cultural distance that has long appeared to separate towns such as this from events in the Spanish capital. And yet, in recent months the hard-line separatism associated with the Catalan heartland has gained a crucial influence in national politics.

Although the main Catalan nationalist parties suffered losses in last July’s general election, the fragmented nature of the Spanish parliament, with its razor-thin balance between left and right, meant that they became kingmakers. The Catalan Republican Left (ERC), which governs the region, and Together for Catalonia (JxCat), which espouses a more uncompromising route to independence, supported Socialist Pedro Sánchez in his successful bid to form a new left-wing coalition government in November.

In exchange, he agreed to push an amnesty law through parliament, aimed at withdrawing pending legal action against more than 300 Catalan nationalists, mainly for their role in the failed 2017 bid for independence. Among the theoretical beneficiaries of the amnesty is Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president who led that secession attempt and who, from self-exile in Belgium, is JxCat’s de facto leader.

Josep Bartrolí, a local pensioner, is heartened by Puigdemont’s newfound protagonism in Spanish politics. But he is yet to be fully convinced.

“He needs to deliver,” he says. “He needs to justify the influence he has.”

Puigdemont and ERC have insisted that the ultimate aim of their engagement with the Spanish government is to achieve a negotiated, Scotland-style independence referendum. Bartrolí, however, looks beyond that.

“We’ve already had a referendum and we won it,” he says, in reference to the contentious 2017 ballot, which was deemed illegal by the courts. “It’s not necessary because we’ve already won one, so why ask for another?”

The town’s mayor, Ivan Sànchez, typifies the mood among those who want secession.

“We’re a little bit in standby mode,” he says. “There’s not the same feeling that there was in 2017 or even as recently as 2019.”

Sànchez is a member of the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), a pro-independence, hard-left party which has substantial presence at a local level but which currently has no representation in the Spanish parliament.

He points to polls which show that, while support for independence in Catalonia has dropped to about 41 per cent, from 49 per cent in 2017, However, he says, that remains a substantial starting point.

“I’m still optimistic because we’re in a better situation than we were in the ‘90s or at the start of the 2000s,” he says.

“At that time we would never have imagined that we’d have so much support in the street or that [41 per cent] of people would want independence. So there’s optimism and we’re preparing ourselves for when there’s another opportunity.”

Sànchez admits to “ambiguous” feelings regarding the amnesty law. While seeing it as an opportunity for the Catalan separatist cause, he does not trust the Spanish state to deliver.

Others who want independence do not trust the efforts of Puigdemont’s JxCat or ERC to deliver it.

For Joan, a young man who insists on answering questions in Catalan rather than Spanish, the amnesty is “a farce because it doesn’t include all those facing reprisals, it only includes a certain number of them”.

“For me, neither Puigdemont nor ERC are pro-independence,” he says. “They are clowns.”

There are plenty on the unionist right who have used the same term to describe Catalonia’s nationalist figures. Meanwhile, Puigdemont’s return from abroad is far from definite. Last month his party blocked the amnesty law’s passage through congress, because it lacked guarantees protecting him and several others from terrorism charges which an investigating judge has threatened to bring against them for their alleged role in street protests in 2019.

The amnesty Bill is due to be presented for debate once again later this month. If it were to be approved this time, it could be in place by the summer, although it is likely to face a barrage of legal challenges.

“It’s very serious indeed when [Puigdemont,] a fugitive from justice, has the keys to Spain,” says Daniel Ruiz, an economics student, who is part of the small unionist minority in Berga.

“In this town everyone is pro-independence,” he says. “In 2017 it got really tense here.” He says that at the time it was intimidating not to be part of the pro-independence majority. While the atmosphere did eventually cool somewhat, tensions are now increasing again, he says.

Ruiz supports the far-right Vox party, whose success has been based mainly on its fierce opposition to Catalan separatism. The turbulent start to the new legislature, with JxCat repeatedly threatening to collapse the Spanish government’s fragile majority, is the sign of things to come, he believes.

“They’ll want more and they’ll ask for a referendum,” he says. “And they’ll get that too, because this prime minister is capable of selling his own mother.”

Ivan Sànchez, the mayor of Berga, is much less convinced that the referendum he hopes for is on the horizon.

“It’s going to be difficult,” he says. “I reckon we’ll have to carry out another unilateral confrontation with the Spanish state.”

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