What Cameron should say about Brexit

I might not agree with David Cameron when he makes his long-awaited speech in the Netherlands on Friday. But he will at least be firing a starting pistol for an open debate about the future of Britain’s role in the European Union. Goaded by our predominantly rightwing media, Britain’s main political parties have traditionally been timid when it comes to defending membership of the bloc. Instead, both the Conservatives and Labour have long engaged in a disingenuous contest: who can be seen to sigh the deepest about the tiresome obligations rubber-stamped in Brussels, while never actually mouthing the dread word on the bottom line. Now that word exists: Brexit.

Whatever the terms and time frame for a referendum outlined by the prime minister, there will now be a dividing line about which political forces and, eventually, all UK citizens, will have to position themselves. Are we in or are we out? As a Brit who is physically out in the EU, I know on which side my bread/pan/pain/panne (you get the idea) is buttered (or oiled?). I want my compatriots to see the benefits of continued, and committed, EU membership; I await anxiously for champions to emerge. It may be a long and frustrating wait. Thursday’s news that Labour leader Ed Miliband is refusing to say whether he would support a referendum on taking powers back from Brussels is disheartening, to say the least. We do still have Nick Clegg and his much-Googled Spanish wife Miriam González. The deputy PM is eager to put some distance between his party and Cameron´s euro-skeptic-ridden Tories on this one, but what may help to push up the Liberal Democrat vote back toward 20 percent will not suffice to win the day in a nationwide referendum.

To whom is Cameron addressing Friday’s long-awaited declaration? Mainly, to the euro-skeptic element in his party, many of whom are seeing their majorities whittled away by the rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Brussels (and absurdly named) UKIP. The story of a British PM turning cold on Europe after his first years in power is hardly a new one, however, albeit this time in the face of US pressure to not rock the European boat.   

As a Briton who is reaping the EU’s rewards, as opposed to compatriots who think that Brussels is sucking away the UK’s lifeblood, this is what I would like to hear my prime minister say on a winter’s day in the Netherlands:

Britain can play a leading EU role. In fact, it already has. Cameron should quote José Ignacio Torreblanca from EL PAÍS last month: “Since the 1980s, thanks to the vision of Britain, which supported the use of the qualified majority (as opposed to unanimity) for questions related to the internal market, we have advanced rapidly along the path of creation of markets, inward and outward, while keeping a tight budgetary leash on certain areas such as agricultural policy, which had previously burgeoned out of hand to absorb more than half the EU budget.”

Turning our back on Europe would have a terrible cultural and social cost. Erasmus scholarships, exchange courses, easy-to-arrange retirement in the sun, cross-border relationships, professional opportunities in open markets… is it all so bad?  

Britain is no longer a world power. Europe could be much more of one with the help of genuine British engagement. Obama knows this, and it is time that Middle England knew this too. 

So will I be able to live out my dual existence to the end of my days as a British citizen paying my taxes in Spain? Can I realistically cherish the idea that my children could study at a UK university? I hope the day never comes when I have to choose between my home countries, but I relish the prospect of Britain having its say. I will be among that electorate, posting my ballot - in favor of Brit-in!

Villar with New Worlds to conquer

It takes a lot to make the usually unflappable Vicente Del Bosque look uncomfortable before the cameras. But that is what happened last Friday when the Spanish national football coach was asked to defend the fixing of his team’s friendly game in Panama this Wednesday.

“Going to Panama shows a commitment of our country with other Spanish-speaking countries,” Del Bosque said. “We are playing on this date, just like every other team in the world. Every trip to Europe normally means we arrive home at five in the morning, without sleeping. However, when we play in the Americas, everyone says we must be tired. We are no exception - every national side is playing on this date.”

The usually ultra-sensible Del Bosque trying to say it was an advantage for his players to take two eleven hour flights in just three days, and play a game in between, showed how awkward it was for anyone to explain why Spain was yet again travelling halfway around the world to play a friendly game against a team unlikely to test them in any meaningful way. For the World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 winning coach could not say what most in the room knew - the game had more to do with filling the coffers of the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF) than preparing the team for their upcoming World Cup 2014 qualifiers.

This is not an isolated incident. Since summer 2010 only four of Spain's 17 friendlies have been at home. La Roja have travelled to the USA, Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico for games which have been of limited use to the team, but brought in an estimated €20m for the RFEF. The association’s official line on these games is that as world champions it is Spain’s “obligation” to spread the game to all corners of the globe, especially those where the Spanish language is spoken, but few really buy that.

While Del Bosque has allowed some of his more senior or recently injured players to miss the game, the contract signed between the RFEF and Federación Panameña de Fútbol (FEPAFUT) mean a certain number of top players must be present, and Iker Casillas, Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fábregas, Sergio Ramos and Sergio Busquets all made the trip. Those players chosen do not always seem very motivated by such ‘marquee’ games - Spain drew in Costa Rica earlier this year, and were hammered 4-1 in Buenos Aires in 2010, but have no choice in where or when their team plays.

They generally keep out of any public polemics - Juan Mata on Monday said he liked showing Spanish footballing culture to the world - but sometimes frustration leaks through. “The journey and the game against Panama is in the middle of the season and not everyone is delighted,” admitted Fábregas last weekend. Such complaints would likely be much louder had the players not negotiated their own healthy share of the commercial income from such games last year.

As has become customary on these trips, Villar, the coach and his players (and a large group of accompanying dignitaries and sponsors), were received by Panama president Ricardo Martinelli at his Palacio de las Garzas on the day before the game. Amid much backslapping from those in the expensive suits, and disinterested stares from those in the tracksuits, Villar took the opportunity to talk of the historical and sporting friendships between the two countries, and spoke of how the game would help the sporting development of Panama's youth.

There was unsurprisingly no discussion of the ticket prices - US$45 to US$2000 – which will likely discourage most children's attendance, or a kick-off time (16:30 local) convenient for TV viewers / companies in Spain, but not for players or supporters inside the Estadio Rommel Fernández, where the temperature will be around 30°C.

“The Spanish national team has become a machine for making money,” wrote José Félix Díaz in November and it is hard to disagree. Winning last summer’s European championships was worth over €20m in prize money, and likely more in commercial arrangements with the team's sponsors. These are good days for the previously financially troubled RFEF, a state of affairs which no doubt helped former Athletic Bilbao player Villar sail to re-election for a sixth consecutive four year term as president last February, despite allegations of irregularities in the voting process.

Meanwhile, Spain’s players get to fly across the ocean for a game they do not want to play and to smile for the cameras while meeting politicians and sponsors eager to associate themselves with sporting success. An optimist could say that at least La Roja’s players and fans could have another trophy to celebrate on the final whistle. As part of the game’s celebration of the special relationship between the peoples of Spain and Panama, the winners receive a specially designed ‘Copa V Centenario’ which is being presented to mark the 500th anniverary of the ‘discovery’ of the Pacific Ocean by Extremaduran conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Seriously.

The globetrotting Villar could have his eyes on a different prize. With Sepp Blatter set to finally step down as FIFA president in 2015, the Basque – a UEFA vice-president since 1992 and FIFA VP since 2000 – looks a good bet to benefit in the subsequent reshuffle of football's top jobs. This week's trip, and his ongoing careful cultivation of Latin American football associations, is therefore good politics, as well as good business. If Del Bosque and his all conquering players have to take a few flights, play a few games and answer a few awkward questions, well them's the breaks.

Rajoy: mystery or void?

The big question, we are incessantly told, is whether Rajoy is going to ask for a second bailout, using the EU’s ethereal rescue mechanisms. But here on the ground in Spain, there are countless questions which no one in the Popular Party (PP) government seems interested in answering.

Let’s start with a small day-to-day issue: How much does it save the government to make civil servants go to the doctor in order to justify one single day’s absence, clogging up yet further the public healthcare system?

Still in the healthcare department: Was the decision to strip illegal immigrants of their health cards, unless they pay into an insurance plan, really taken on economic grounds or was the aim to distract attention?

On education, it is not good enough that the education minister thinks it is amusing to wax semantics, saying this week that it is for “students to improve their performance in order to boost economic growth.” Before answers, in this case, a little humility is required to admit that billions of euros have been slashed from education spending. And that comes with a cost.    

Ok, now to money: What is the next move as regards the serious problem of tax evasion in light of the failure of the “fiscal amnesty” to so far raise more than some tens of millions when the government predicted it would bring in 2.5 billion euros? When and how will the authorities go after the tax dodgers? 

And are the IMF-touted macroeconomic gains of boosting indirect taxation ahead of raising levies on the wealthy worth the pain? We don’t know because the government is not deigning to explain its policies.

Faced by such a storm, it would be nice if we could all row in the same direction, but, to labor the maritime metaphor, Spain’s skipper remains locked in his quarters. Having coasted to power by merely observing the wreckage of the Zapatero administration, Rajoy clearly took a decision to eschew the media spotlight in the hope of avoiding a swift burnout. All well and good. But his government has been forced to dart hither and thither as the deficit-target dictates have commanded. When pressed, on occasion, the prime minister’s pitch is the message that “the right people are in charge now; rest assured, if anything goes wrong, it will not be due to our incompetence.”

It might be populist to yearn to maximize time spent on the podium, but a little verbal populism would surely be welcome at this stage. We might not all swallow the policies, but it would be nice to know where they are meant to be heading. Wait a minute! Damn nice, it is our right to know. On September 10 Rajoy offered his first TV interview since taking office nine months earlier. In his few press conferences, he has rarely taken questions from journalists.

Rajoy is not burning in the spotlight, but the masterplan is by no means taking a crystalline form as the waves of “reforms” (cutbacks) pass by. The draft 2013 state budget (coming close on the heels of the 2012 document which was held back until Easter seemingly with the ultimately frustrated hope of hoisting the PP candidate to power in Andalusia) contains virtually nothing by way of stimulus for the ailing economy, with the exception of a reintroduced car-purchasing subsidy. Business is to sprout by itself; the unemployed disappear – by going abroad or simply falling off the records as their entitlements elapse; growth will return by magic to fecundate fallow land.

Or is no one explaining any plan because there is no plan? Waiting for Rajoy could be the unfunniest political joke ever played.

Photograph by Uly Martín.

Human castles - a metaphor for the Catalan spirit

All eyes are on the tiny child, perhaps seven or eight years old, as she gingerly but quickly and purposefully scales up the side of the tower.  There is no safety net or rope to catch her if she falls.  All the more nail-biting given it’s a human tower on which she precariously balances, seven human stories high, perhaps 12 meters tall, that is beginning to creak and sway.  The buzz of the arena fades to a momentary silence as everyone looks to the barefoot girl in her traditional outfit - white trousers, cummerbund and team orange shirt, her ponytail trailing down her back beneath her safety helmet.  The gralles, primitive oboes, blast and drums rally her spirit, hurtling towards a crescendo.  Thousands in the arena call out and chant in support.  Then the whole stadium bursts into feverish cheers as the little girl reaches the top of the dizzyingly high apex, crouches on the shoulders of those beneath and raises her hand, crowning the tower - job done - or almost, she still needs to get down. 

She begins an immediate descent and reaches the base within a few seconds.  The thick bough of people that forms the tower’s foundation reminds me of the nature-inspired patterns of Gaudí’s architecture.  Without pause, the girl thrusts herself into the outstretched arms of her proud and relieved mother, who caresses and kisses her.  The little girl is delirious with joy.  She has learnt some of the most important lessons for a Catalan: “Strength, balance, courage and common sense” - the de facto essence of the Catalan spirit.

Welcome to the 24^th Concurs de Castells competition, celebrating its 80^th anniversary, in the stunning Catalan coastal city and 2012 “Capital of Catalan Culture”, Tarragona.  Declared a UNESCO “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity” in 2010, the “castell”, human castle, according to the organisers of the competition, is a tradition that began 200 years ago in the small village of Valls, just 20km away from Tarragona after a village dance.  From these small roots the tradition spread around Catalonia until in 1932, the competition was inaugurated in Tarragona to mark these amazing feats of “human engineering”.  

In the competition there are currently 39 different types of human towers that can be built, varying in size and structure, with names such as “quatre de vuit” – four by eight, which represents the people width versus the people height of the tower.  A group of twenty experts calculate and debate the points to be awarded for each castle.  The teams get five rounds of tower building each.  The most stable towers have a girth of four people.  The highest and most difficult tower ever achieved was a tower three people wide by a staggering ten people high. 

We are human towers

In the pit of the arena I speak to the red shirted, Maritxell Marti, team member of the reigning castell champions, Villafranca.  She says castells epitomise the Catalan spirit.  “I think when you build a human castle; all the things that Catalan people aspire to like solidarity, everyone helping each other, are there”. 

In fact the tagline for the castells competition is “Som Castells” – we are human towers; and many Catalans believe the demonstration of teamwork and courage demanded in these extraordinary displays reflect the region’s psyche.

Although teams from throughout Catalonia compete for the esteemed trophy and prize money, this year €15,000, it is the unity between them that one notices most.  As Martin den Ambtman and Anouck Wiggers, young tourists from the Netherlands said, what they liked to see was how different teams encouraged and even physically supported other team towers if they faltered.

Raimon Jene, of team Poble Sec, Barcelona, sweating and breathless after completing a third round of castell building, agrees that these towers are a powerful symbol of what it is to be Catalan.  He says the castells are built from “tradition, cooperation, strength, targeting an objective and overcoming challenges”.

And the castells increasingly seem to strike a chord amongst Catalans.  Jordi Suriñach, spokesperson for the castells competition told me that that this year was the largest in the event’s history - both in terms of competitor and spectator numbers.  32 teams amounting to an estimated 11,000 castellers took part and it attracted a crowd of almost 10,000.  The organisers even had to extend the competition duration from the traditional half day to over one and a half days.

So what is behind the sudden growth in interest in this uniquely Catalan tradition?

A groundswell of support

The groundswell of involvement and support in the competition has been interpreted as a reflection of the strengthening pride and regional identity amongst Catalans and the dramatic increase in support for independence.  Recent polls suggest backing for a referendum on independence is at an all time high of 74%.

A month ago, on 11^th September, 1.5 million protestors took to the streets of Barcelona, marking Catalonia’s national day, La Diada.  From a sea of yellow and red Catalan flags could be heard the chant “Catalonia - a new European state”.  Many were calling for complete secession from the rest of Spain.  Those leading the rallying cry were high-profile Catalan politicians and personalities including Sandro Rosell, the president of FC Barcelona, one of Catalonia’s most revered global exports.

According to Spanish writers and commentators Ricard González and Jaume Clotet in a recent New York Times article: “The immediate cause of Catalonia’s sudden outbreak of secessionist fever is so-called fiscal looting.  Before taxes, Catalonia is the fourth richest of Spain’s 17 autonomous regions.  After taxes, it drops to ninth - a form of forced redistribution unparalleled in contemporary Europe.” 

But it is not just economic woes that have driven Catalans to seek more autonomy from Spain.  Its population often feel out of sync with the rest of country.  This led to violent oppression during Spain’s Franco era that began in 1939 when democratic processes were annulled, the Catalan language was suppressed; and approximately 4000 Catalans were executed. 

Even after the transition to democracy in the late 1970s Catalans still found their values at odds with the rest of Spain.  In 2010 Catalonia banned bullfighting, a practice that purportedly represents the epitome of Spanish culture; sending a clear signal that Catalonia’s sensibilities were very different to those of the rest of Spain and more aligned with the rest of Western Europe.

Catalonia also punches above its weight when it comes to global cultural influence which gives it a real sense of regional pride.  Its famous sons include the genius architect Antoni Gaudí and artist Salvador Dalí; the region is seat of the legendary Barça football club; was the home of Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, regarded as the best restaurant in the world before it closed in 2011and whose influence revolutionised global cuisine; and despite Franco’s attempt to crush the Catalan language, its usage has enjoyed a renaissance and is spoken as the lingua franca in much of the region.

An independent Catalan state?

When I ask the beaming Maritxell Marti, whose Villafranca castells team has just won the 2012 Concurs de Castells, whether Catalonia will be independent one day, it is clear she has a taste for victory: “I hope so, I really, really hope so.” 

But despite the towering success of the Catalan independence movement, it’s still at risk of being toppled.  The Spanish government is not going to concede easily to increased Catalan autonomy, let alone independence; and has made its position very clear.  There’s a ban on secession in the Spanish constitution and Spanish Army Colonel Francisco Alamán Castro recently made the following ominous statement: “Catalonia’s independence will be over my dead body and many others’ too.” 

However, despite the hostile undercurrents, Artur Mas, the president of Catalonia has called a snap election for 25^th November, considered essentially a referendum on greater autonomy saying to regional parliament: "The time has come to exercise the right to self-determination."

If what it takes to build something as magnificent as the human towers is courage and solidarity I wouldn’t be too surprised to find that the Catalan independence movement powered by such spirit is heading towards a crucial tipping point.  Upon an ever strengthening base of grass roots support, it’s conceivable that the Catalans might just one day build a new architecture on which its children can climb towards a more autonomous future. 

 

 

 Photography: Charles Wardhaugh

Even tricky economic winds can't blow Real Madrid's president Pérez off course

 

Last weekend’s general assembly of Real Madrid’s socios was another triumph for club president Florentino Pérez, who announced some more bold construction plans and new measures to ensure the club remained in madrileño hands, while facing no questions about how the current economic crisis sweeping Spain might be affecting his stewardship.

The most dazzling announcement was a €250 million redevelopment of the club’s stately Estadio Santiago Bernabéu ground. Pérez put forward four different visions, from four leading international architects, of how the already outstanding stadium might look in future. Each design offers more protection from the elements for paying fans and also a new building fronting onto the Paseo de la Castellana featuring “a unique zone of great commercial quality,” Pérez said. A green light for the project could be given as soon as this month, with the work then taking place during the next three summers.

Construction was a theme of the assembly, as it has been throughout Pérez's tenure, which began controversially a decade ago when the club's previous training ground was sold to the city’s municipal authorities. This year there was also renewed talk of building a Real Madrid 'theme park' at the club’s present Valdebebas training facility, where a residence for the senior and youth squads is also planned.

Madrid’s members were also informed that the club’s annual revenues had risen to €514 million in 2011-2012, leading to an annual profit of €24.2 million, while over this period the club’s debt fell by 26.5 per cent to €124.7 million. “I would like to state that these results are spectacular, above all, given the economic circumstances we are living in,” Pérez said.

The Real president is well placed to comment on Spain’s currently troubled economic circumstances (even if he personally does not bear much of their brunt) as he is also the president of the country’s largest construction company Grupo ACS (Actividades de Construcción y Servicios). Its general assembly also took place in September, where Pérez announced that the company’s debt now stood at €2 billion euros, and had made an annual loss of €1.2 million. Shareholders were assured however that these results were due to a once-off misguided investment in ailing Spanish utility giant Iberdrola, and the company's underlying finances remained secure.

Not everyone sees ACS's future so favourably. Last May the New York Times used the construction conglomerate’s problematic debt-funded business model as an example to highlight the serious issues facing the Spanish economy, illustrating the story with a photo of a peeved looking Pérez and saying the company's poor financial situation had lead to “a frantic campaign to sell off assets, pay down debt and further distance itself from a Spanish economy caught in a spiral of austerity and deflation.”

Pérez’s football club has not been forced to sell off any “assets”, but its transfer business in recent years has been much less spectacular than previously. In his first term as president Madrid regularly broke the world transfer record to sign galacticos Zinedine Zidane (€73.5m), Luís Figo (€60m) and David Beckham (€37.5m), while on his return to the club in the summer of 2009 Cristiano Ronaldo (€94m), Kaká (€65m) and Karim Benzema (€35m) all arrived in big money deals, which were financed by borrowing money up front and then recouping it through increased sponsorship and other revenues.

This model has so far worked pretty well, but it is striking that the number of arriving galacticos has dwindled in recent years, especially under present coach José Mourinho. Fabío Coentrão and Nuri Sahin were the biggest signings in 2011, while last summer saw just one major arrival, with €30 million spent to bring Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur. The club actually made a profit during the most recent transfer window, raising approximately €35 million by selling a mixture of squad players and promising youngsters. There also seemed to be an attempt to get rid of the aging and injury prone Kaká, although Pérez denied this, defending the transfer by saying:  “From a financial point of view he's worked out quite well.”

The biggest talking point of Madrid’s season so far - the public ‘sadness’ of Ronaldo, Madrid’s biggest playing asset - was unsurprisingly not dwelt upon. One proposed reason for his supposed unhappiness was a lack of backing from Madrid’s boardroom, with the player unhappy that he had been left frowning empty handed on the podium as Barcelona’s Andrés Iniesta picked up the 2011/12 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award in Monte Carlo last month. Iniesta (and fellow nominee Lionel Messi) had been accompanied that night by Barca club president Sandro Rosell and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta. Ironically (perhaps) Pérez could not attend as the ACS assembly was held the same night.

A more understandable theory put forward for Ronaldo's blue mood was that he feels undervalued at Madrid. Although he has said (via Facebook) that he is not seeking a pay rise from his current €10m a year, a rash of subsequent stories in the Madrid media showed that Samuel Eto’o, Zlatan Ibrahmovic, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and worst of all Messi all now earn more. With just three years remaining on the current deal, negotiations are about to begin between Pérez and the player's agent Jorge Mendes. Mendes appears to have the stronger bargaining position given his client's importance to Real on and off the field, and reports that rival clubs such as Qatari-backed Paris St Germain or Abu Dhabi-funded Manchester City are prepared to offer Ronaldo €20m a year.

The changes wrought on the European football scene by such billionaire foreign investors did impact more directly on Madrid's assembly. After listening to the exciting stadium news and impressive financial results, socios were urged by Pérez to vote in a number of changes to the club’s statutes. The most controversial was to raise the number of years membership required for prospective presidential candidates from 15 to 20. Challengers for the post would also have to provide a personal bank guarantee of 15 per cent of the club’s annual budget (i.e. €75-80 million) from a financial institution recognised by the Banco de España, while absentee votes would be cast using the services of a legal notary not, as previously, through the universal postal system.

Pérez argued these measures were needed to protect the club from a takeover by an outsider without its best interests at heart.

“We think it is reasonable that those who aspire to this responsibility have been soaked in madridismo,” he said. “The more you suffer, the more you hold the colours in your heart … We want the guarantee not from a non-existent island, but from a bank with a face and eyes. If a magnate wants, he can come and present himself, but as a candidate. I do not want to think bad of anyone, not of Arab sheikhs or Russians, but this is our own thing.”

Film buffs among Pérez's supporters might have winced at the reference to “our thing” (“cosa de nuestros socios”), but the proposals also raised some more serious concerns. 20 years seems an arbitrary amount of time, the bank guarantee means only the wealthiest of the wealthy can run, while the new postal vote regulations make it more difficult for members who cannot attend the event in Madrid to cast their ballot. Taken together the changes stop potential challengers (possibly including ex-Real player Manolo Sanchís, businessmen Juan Miguel Villar-Mir and José Manuel Entrencanales or even former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar) from running in next June’s election.

One of the more irate critics of the proposal was Vicente Boluda, interim Madrid president for a spell in 2009, who has said he would like the post full-time.

“The changes to the statues are taking the club away from its socios,” Boluda said. “I do not understand why you need 20 years as a socio to be president. It excludes 90,000 socios. There is no motive for this requirement, except that Florentino wants to eliminate competitors for the next elections. I do not know who might oppose him, but the few possible candidacies will be killed by these statutes.” Ramón Calderón, president from 2006 to 2009, suggested that a better way for Pérez to ensure his re-election would be to mandate that all candidates' first names must begin 'Flo..'.

Both Boluda (who is one of the 90,000 he mentioned) and Calderón (who resigned as president after being accused of electoral fraud) obviously have their own interested reasons for speaking out. But their argument was echoed by other concerned socios, including Eugenio Martínez Bravo, president of supporters group ‘Plataforma Blanca'. “Florentino Pérez is tailoring the position to perpetuate himself or his associates at Madrid,” Martínez Bravo told AS.

There were fewer complaints about Madrid's slimmed-down transfer policy, or questions about why the already super-modern Bernabéu needs a facelift when money might be required elsewhere. Neither was there much analysis of how the same economic swings and roundabouts which have damaged Perez's construction company could affect his football club. All proposed motions were carried by large majorities, Marca headlined its video report ‘A Placid Assembly for Florentino’ and the main story on the event on Real’s website lead with Pérez’s dreams of delivering the longed-for décima or tenth European Cup this season.

 Achieve that and Pérez's re-election will be ensured, whichever way the economic winds blow.

17 things Spain should say to Catalonia

The most typical reaction to the Catalan sovereignty debate I am hearing on the Spanish side is “Fine, why don’t they just leave and get it over with?” But this is just bravado. The 16 remaining regions of Spain would be immensely poorer in the event of a Catalan secession, so as an adopted Madrileño I take the liberty of making this jilted lover’s plea:

1. I will not consider it rude when spoken to in Catalan next time I visit. In fact, what is rude is my not responding with a few hastily learnt pleasantries in your language.

2. And I wish all of you Catalans would be more willing to take a good look around Madrid. We need to get to know each other more.

3. I know that lately things “haven’t gone well,” as Artur Mas said after meeting the prime minister, but we must beat the crisis together.

4. I am glad all those national funds were spent on beautifying Barcelona before the wonderful 1992 Olympic Games, launching the city as one of Europe’s most glamorous destinations today.

5. But sorry that so many years were allowed to pass before a decent high-speed train connection was finally made between the Spanish and Catalan capitals. It is there now, though.

6. It is great that your region has contributed so much to poorer parts of Spain through the concept of “solidarity.” Please maintain this idea.

7. I refuse to believe that a story like ours is going to end badly over money…

8. It is appreciated that Catalan nationalism has spurned the path of violence. Politics will find a solution.

9. We have the same enemy. Both the governments in Madrid and Barcelona are using the crisis as a pretext for slashing at the welfare state.

10. Spain is Europe. Catalonia is Europe. Spain is a little Catalan. Catalonia is a little Spanish.

11. Gaudí, Dalí and Miró. Goya, Lorca and Picasso.

12. Catalonia has been the entry point for new influences in Spain. Thanks for bringing the likes of Orwell and Cruyff to our shores.

13. There are so many things that only happen between the borders of France and Portugal, like being able to find a small bar to have a drink in after a football match that ends at midnight.

14. Talking of football, how can we even be thinking of cutting the Spain team in two at this glorious time? Ramos without Piqué? Iniesta without Xavi..?

15. Well done for banning bullfighting, by the way (not all Spaniards think this, but they will).

16. Barcelona is where don Quixote saw the sea, our Mediterranean.  

17. I will learn some Catalan so I can say things like: “Tots iguals, tots diferents.”    

 

Photograph by Marcel.lí Sàenz Martínez.

Lip-service to Catalonia?

The last week has been an exhilarating one for many Catalan nationalists, with hundreds of thousands of people marking la Diada, the national day of Catalonia, by marching through the streets of Barcelona calling for independence from Spain. Estimates of the number of people thronging the city's streets, waving the Catalan flag and holding up banners calling for the creation of a new European state, varied from 600,000 to 1.5 million.

Perhaps the most famous current living Catalan could not attend as he no longer lives in the city, but he did address the crowd via a video-link. Former Barcelona coach and Spanish international midfielder Josep Guardiola appeared on a big screen holding up his symbolic sheet of green paper to say (in Catalan): “From New York, here you have one more vote,” said Guardiola. This was greeted by huge roars, and taken by many to say that the club with which Guardiola is so associated was backing the call for an independence referendum.

This feeling was also heightened by suspiciously well-timed stories which appeared in Catalan sports paper Sport the day before the march, which claimed the team's second jersey next season would be red and yellow striped, inspired by the senyera, the national flag of Catalonia. These were neither confirmed nor denied by the club, as president Sandro Rosell, new head coach Tito Vilanova and club captain Carlés Puyol made the traditional trip to lay flowers at the monument to Rafael Casanova, an icon of Catalan nationalism on the morning of September 11.

As highly visible faces of Catalonia's most prominent institution anyone associated with the club has of course been questioned about whenever they faced the press this week. At this point the club’s Spanish international players have plenty of experience in batting away such queries, and on Thursday winger Pedro Rodríguez (born in Tenerife) was diplomatic when asked if he agreed with Guardiola’s stance on Catalan independence.

"Guardiola has said what he feels, they are personal statements and should be respected,” Pedro said. Pep’s successor Tito was also asked about the issue in his pre-game press conference on Friday, and also gave a careful reply - “We should let people express their views peacefully, as Guardiola did,” he said on Friday. “He can say what he likes, because we are in a democracy".

Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta was not so backward about coming forward with an opinion. Laporta, who when in charge at the Camp Nou was never shy about using the club to further his own political ambitions (which have since been thwarted by the Calatan electorate), gave an interview to Catalan nationalist online magazine Nació Digital the day before the march. He used this to point out he had always represented the club at la Diada events and rue that he could not have lead the club in a Catalan state: “I would have liked to be president of Barça in an independent Catalonia,” he said. “It would be nice.”

Laporta’s successor (and former colleague, but now bitter rival) Sandro Rosell, also attended Tuesday’s march, but only in a personal capacity. Careful to manage the image projected he posed for photographers but did not speak with any reporters while there. On Thursday he did say however that "If Catalonia were independent I don't have any doubts that Barça would continue in the LFP (the Spanish league), just as Monaco play in the French league.”

Rosell was clever to frame the issue in footballing terms, and to raise an important issue for many blaugrana supporters, inside and outside of Catalonia. Outright independence remains an unlikely event in the short term, but the odds on it happening in the coming years have shortened during the current economic crisis, with the regional government regularly pointing out that Catalans pay more in taxes than they receive back in revenue from the central government in Madrid. This opens up the very important question of what would then happen to FC Barcelona.

Despite what you might think from some of their marketing, especially when Laporta was president, Barça are not the Catalan national side. An actual representative team, made up of players born in the region who represent various clubs throughout the Spanish and other leagues plays a few games each year, usually around Christmas. They last played in December 2011, when a Johan Cruyff coached selection including Barca players Xavi Hernández, Gerard Piqué, Cesc Fábregas and Víctor Valdés drew 0-0 with Tunisia in front of 36,545 supporters in the Catalan capital's Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys.

Were Catalonia to become independent this would be a ready-made national team to compete at a very high standard, and would likely be readily accepted into UEFA and FIFA, where they could automatically challenge to win trophies.

What would happen at club level, however, looks much more problematic. There was a short-lived Lliga Catalana during the Spanish Civil War, although the Barcelona team spent much of the conflict touring North and South America under the management of Irishman Patrick O’Connell and rejoined the Spanish league once the war had finished and have played there since.

A Catalan Cup was re-established in 1984, and is held each year, although the seriousness with which Barcelona take it was shown by the cancellation of this season’s rejigged competition final against city rivals Espanyol, as a date could not be found to play it. Should La Lliga begin again it would be dominated by Barca, and to a lesser extent Espanyol, with lower tier teams such as Gimnàstic de Tarragona, Lleida, Girona, Sabadell, Lerida and Hospitalet de Llobregat (who would all likely be beaten by a Barcelona reserve or youth side) just likely making up the numbers. Champions League qualification would be a given for Barca, even if they would likely lose UEFA co-efficient points in the short term.

The biggest issue Rosell would have with a new Catalan domestic competition however is more than slightly awkward for him (or Laporta) to detail in public. Despite all the success on the pitch during Guardiola's historic last four seasons in charge, Barcelona are currently an estimated €578 million in debt. This is apparently a just about manageable situation considering their current assets, cash reserves and especially commercial revenues.

The lions' share of the latter however (€140 million a season through their domestic TV deal) is generated through their sometimes bitter but always compelling rivalry with Real Madrid. Leave the Spanish league, forego the typical four of five high profile clásicos a year, and Barca would be in serious financial bother. So much bother that paying the wages of all the Catalan players named above, and the club's Argentine talisman Leo Messi, would quickly become difficult.

This explains why Rosell was quick to float the case of Monaco this week. It maybe does not work quite perfectly as a precedent as that principality has much closer political, economic and defence ties than an independent Catalonia would have with Spain, but the example of Welsh teams Cardiff and Swansea competing in the English leagues is also there to be called upon.

But then there is no guarantee that UEFA or FIFA would be agree to a club side playing across national borders however, as their cold reactions to regularly mooted plans for Scottish teams Celtic and Glasgow Rangers to join the English Premier League show. Nobody really knows what would happen, but none of the possible sporting scenarios seem to work in Barcelona's favour.

Knowing this it could be that Guardiola, Rosell, Laporta and everyone else associated with the club, from players to fans, are all committed sufficiently to the cause of Catalan nationalism to risk the potentially damaging fall-out that would ensue from the creation of a new independent country. Or that they have not all thought it through properly. Or that they think (or hope) it's unlikely to happen and feel they are free to just go along with the prevailing mood in the region.

The opposition is back – but who is in power?

It has been said that the difference between Spain and Portugal is a year. But while the government in Madrid grapples with the decision on whether to formalize a full bailout request and its counterpart in Lisbon continues to roll out the concomitant austerity measures, one element in both political scenes has come into synch at the start of the new term. The socialist opposition parties have decided that the time for loyalty to center-right governments who inherited emergency situations is over. Rugged opposition is to be the order of the day. In reality, both formations were understandably in self-flagellating mode, the apparent outbreak of institutional responsibility little more than a sense of mea culpa decency as both the Socialist governments of Sócrates in Portugal and Zapatero in Spain had charted unsuccessful paths through the international credit crunch.

Now a face-saving number of months have passed (nine months for the Spanish PSOE and 16 for the Portuguese PS, which asked for the European bailout itself) and there are a dazzling array of truly ugly government policies to pick on. Passos Coelho has introduced healthcare charges, slashed pensions, eliminated holidays and last week announced an effective seven-percent pay cut for the entire nation’s workforce in the form of an across-the-board rise in Social Security payments. The courts had told the government it was discriminatory to remove only public workers’ Christmas payment – so Finance Minister Vítor Gaspar was told to look for alternative budget savings. His latest idea certainly cannot be described as discriminatory!

Portuguese Socialist leader António José Seguro, the successor to José Sócrates, has had enough. Noting that the deficit target for this year will almost certainly not be met and that unemployment has risen to more than 15 percent, he asks: “What good has come from all the pain and sacrifices that the Portuguese are going through?”

Spanish Socialist Party leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba has moved somewhat faster. In spring he was still eager to press the case for a cross-party pact with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, hoping to loop a few salutary red lines around vital services to cushion the austerity blows for the most disadvantaged. And despite being roundly snubbed during the spring period when 2012’s belated state budget was being finalized, the PSOE was still there for Rajoy’s government when summer arrived and the vote on ratifying the EU Budgetary Stability Pact came around. Now he is saying that calling for a bailout will be “Rajoy’s certificate of incompetence.” A bit rich, maybe?

Why the sudden change to a more aggressive form of opposition? It is worth noting that both countries are heading for elections, with the Spanish regions of Galicia and the Basque Country going to the polls next month. Portugal’s local elections are coming up next year. It could also be legitimately argued that a mainstream expression of disapproval toward austerity measures is important for the cohesion of society at a time when some citizens’ protests are crossing the boundary between peaceful resistance -– like the original 15-M take-the-square movement -– and criminality, as has been seen in a spate of symbolic supermarket robberies.

But is the whole concept of opposition to government austerity measures somewhat disingenuous if these are effectively being imposed from the outside. Passos Coelho is fairly sanguine about what is expected of his administration by the troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF), saying last week that “Portugal is now seen in a far better light from the outside than when we asked for the bailout.” In Spain Rajoy is intent on holding on to his fig leaf of authority. He tried to set his own deficit target for Spain, insisting it was a sovereign issue, but was forced to smile grimly as Brussels lowered it once more (though still allowing a little extra leeway). VAT was not something he wanted to raise, but he bit that bullet too. Even his absolute red line on pensions now seems less stubborn than before, recently replying to journalists in his first televised interview as prime minister that any reduction in retirees’ allowances would be “a last resort.”

Given this order of things, is opposing “government policy” anything more than empty posturing?

Photograph: The Spanish Socialist Party's federal executive meeting earlier this month, by Álvaro García.

Madrid: Craft Beer O'Clock

North of Madrid, in the town of Colmenar Viejo, a German man and his Cuban wife are brewing beer. I visited their craft brewery a few weeks back, with a hiking group, after a walk in the mountains. Stefan and Lena – the founders of Cervezas Lest – gave us beer to drink and told us about the burgeoning craft beer scene in Madrid.

“I like the northern gods,” says Stefan as he hands out bottles of Thor, one of his three beers (the other two are Odin and Freya). While we sip the dark, smoky-flavoured brew, he talks about the state of Spanish beer. The country remains largely in the grip of a handful of industrial brewers, and has been left a little in the dust when it comes to the internationally-flourishing craft beer movement. Catalonia does have a ten-year-old craft beer scene, with a number of local breweries and a string of craft beer bars. Valencia also has a clutch of small-batch breweries.

But Madrid, despite posing as a cosmopolitan powerhouse, hasn’t kept pace. Apart from a couple of small brewers, the capital has remained stubbornly soaked in Mahou.

Finally that’s changing. Stefan and Lena launched Lest in November. And they’re part of a rising tide of craft breweries, shops and bars opening up throughout the city.

“There are thousands of rumours of local breweries that are going to start up,” says Juanma, co-owner of La Buena Pinta, a new craft beer shop in Lavapiés’ San Fernando market. The shop's shelves are a kaleidoscope of different brews – pale ales, lagers, lambics, Trappists, Belgians, stouts, porters – from Madrid, Spain and the world. And Juanma keeps a few in the fridge in case you feel like a drink and a chat.

A telecommunications engineer by trade and a beer lover from way back, he was laid off two and half years ago. “I was forty-six and unemployed, in the middle of an economic crisis.” The time was ripe for personal reinvention, hence La Buena Pinta. And therein lies a curious rub – Spain’s economic armageddon is helping bring good beer to Madrid. The two guys who last year opened Cervezorama, a craft beer shop near Metro Bilbao, were also out of work. As was Javi, who runs El Pedal, a craft beer bar on Calle Argumosa. He lost his job as a photographer in 2008 and opened El Pedal last September.

“What gets me is there’s no proper beer culture here,” says Javi, as he mops the bar five minutes before opening. Behind him one hundred and thirty craft beers line the wall. “People in Madrid just aren’t used to drinking different beers.” I ask him if the economic crisis is the right time to try to open Madrilenians’ minds, as well as their wallets (small brewers by their very nature can’t compete with the big guys on price). He says as the beer culture develops, people will spend the extra money. “Little by little, we’re creating a market.” In the meantime, a fair few customers still sit down and order a caña of Mahou. And Javi abides, sort of. “I’m no beer Nazi. If people ask for Mahou, I’ve got Alhambra.”

Unimaginative beer drinkers are shown less leniency at Irreale, a beer bar that just opened in triBall. Behind the burnished-brass bar top there are six (soon to be nine) beers on tap, all of them craft. The selection is curated by Iacopo, an effusive Roman beer aficionado. “Most customers start with a lager or a blonde and then go from there,” he says. Beside me, a craft beer virgin peers at the menu and says in a hushed, apologetic tone that he knows nothing about beer. That’s exactly what Iacopo wants to hear. He asks the man his likes, his dislikes and slowly leads him into a brave new world of Indian pale ales and chocolate stouts.

Still to come is Fábrica Maravillas, a Malasaña brewpub being set up by six Malasaña locals. I met two of them – Thierry, a Frenchman, and his Spanish wife Estefanía. Their pub is still being fitted out and, once done, they’ll be brewing several varieties on-site – to drink in the bar or take away in six packs. They hope to turn on the taps in a couple of months.

“We believe beer consumption can go back to what it was 100 years ago, when it was truly local,” says Thierry. Back in his native Brittany, he says the Bretons imbibe – for the most part – local, independent brews. And that’s the culture they want to create in Madrid.

What does Mahou think of all of this? Are they anxious about the capital’s craft beer rumblings? No, says Thierry. He adds with a laugh that Spain’s big industrial brewers control 99% of the national market. But small breweries are thriving overseas and Thierry believes craft beer will take root in Madrid, despite the city’s caña culture. “The beer revolution is happening and once you’ve tried good beer, it’s very hard to go back.”

We drank to that.

James is a Madrid-based travel writer (www.jamesblick.com, @jamesblick78)

Bologna Universities: All work and no play?

The end of an ERASMUS year signals countless despedidas, frantic searching for low cost airfare (as you’ve been in denial about leaving and left it to the last minute), and more than anything reflection. Not only how you’ve developed as a person, but also on the institute where you’ve just spent the past year as an alumno.

I came to Spain with some firm stereotypes in mind. Largely derived from its mañana reputation and the brilliant French language film ‘L’auberge espagnole’, it is fair to say siesta, tapas, fiesta y un poquito de estudio would be a wholly accurate summary of what I expected to encounter – all different to work oriented England.

Typical Spanish: What I was expecting (Photo: BeLiP, Flickr)

Well, the differences between English and Spanish universities ARE immense – and that’s excluding the fact it’s all in a different language. Spanish Universities implement the Bologna Higher Education System, a framework developed by the EU to level out the varying types and difficulties of degrees in Europe. Bologna is designed to give students more contact hours with teachers, which inevitably means more modules, and as a consequence more work. In this respect it is a positive move, certainly some of the most frequent complaints to come out of my mouth – or that of my compañeros de clase back in Blighty - are annoyances such as “This just hasn’t been explained properly”, “they went over that topic too quickly” and “we don’t get anywhere near enough contact hours for our tuition fees”. These negatives are expelled with the heavily work orientated Bologna; in fact, you actually do far more than is necessary. 

Here the immediate difference with (certainly my, and I presume other) English universities becomes apparent: a minimum of four hours a week (normally two in large theory classes and two in smaller practical, seminar type classes) per module – as opposed to two. Five modules each semester – as opposed to three, adding up to 60 credits over the space of an academic year, with an average of 20 mandatory hours a week in the classroom with a small number (usually three) of faltas (absences) granted at the discretion of the professor. Medical absence without a signed doctors note is not tolerated and a registration (yes, seriously) is taken during some point of the class. I use the word class rather than lecture throughout I feel it is more appropriate given the system is more school-like than that of one that should be in an institute for adult higher education. Under Bologna you are not permitted to pass the module if you have more than the permitted amount of absences from each module, and this writer for one spent many an early morning groggily chugging down big bottles of water and espresso coffees to avoid the, quite frankly embarrassing fate of being told you’ve missed class too many times, don’t bother coming back.

Practical classes generally consist of supervised work on something that you have prepared the week before the class, which you hand over to the professor for marking, and the cycle is repeated week after week. A mark is given for each class, and if you don’t pass the practical part of the module, you can’t pass the module full stop. Not even if you get 100% in the exam – it’s that simple. The practical modules can be a drag on students as often they are asked to read several chapters, if not an entire book for the next class. I personally had a module where we were asked to read two 400 plus page books for next weeks lesson, something I’d find pretty daunting in English. Needless to say, I scheduled an appointment at my local centro de salud for the exact time and day of said class before dropping out of the module soon after.

The lecturers seem to forget that students have four other modules for which they also may have to do a lot of work, putting an incredible amount of strain on students who, let’s not forget, have the right to a life outside of the faculty doors. “It’s an utter joke, this” said one of my classmates, “I want to go to the language college (an activity growing ever more popular as job prospects diminish) and learn English, but I can’t as I’m always doing ‘homework’ or reading”. Another added “I’m lucky that I live with my parents. I know a lot of people who need to work to help whilst living away from home but can’t because (of the university)”. Indeed, a lot of students feel patronised by the system of education and feel they are being treated like children, still in secondary school, joking they may get a detention for not doing their so called ‘homework’.

What I got: Is too much being asked of Spanish students under the Bologna Plan? (Photo: cara.lepore, Flickr)

It becomes obvious that under the academic umbrella of Bologna, in Spain students are not afforded the luxury of free time (something we take for granted) that is enjoyed in British universities, with part-time jobs, social lives and general pursuance of other extra-curricular activities extremely difficult to combine with degrees, especially in my faculty where the workload is demanding, with many classes starting at 8am, and going on until as late as 9pm.

I therefore return with a completely new al revés outlook on both the Spanish and English higher education systems. Maybe our home universities aren’t all work, work, work after all, and are in fact more fiesta, siesta y un poquito de estudio than we realise. It’s just a shame I’ll be leaving the tapas behind.