-Ask the Pujol
family about corruption (as Jeremy
Paxman or any other serious BBC presenter would do with any politicians tainted
by clear suspicions of wrong-doing). The son is being investigated for his
involvement in corruption in the vehicle inspection industry and the father saw
two of his former finance ministers go to prison. The party that he founded is
under investigation by a judge for illegal financing using as a platform the
Music Palace (“Palau de la Música”), a cultural infrastructure lavishly
subsidized by the public sector. The party of the Pujols started to clearly support independence just
last summer when the corruption accusations were reaching a maximum.
-Ask the
Pujol family and the other leaders of his party why just before stating their
support for independence and calling a snap election to benefit from the
populist independentist wave, they changed the legislation on the governance of
public TV and radio, and overturned the legislation put forward by the previous
progressive Catalan government, which for the first time created a truly
pluralist and publicly spirited TV and radio along the lines of the BBC.
-Make sure
you get your numbers right on demonstrators. It is impossible that there were
1.5 million people in the September 11th demonstration in Barcelona.
According to two newspapers with different views on the issue of independence,
La Vanguardia and El Pais, if you multiply square meters by persons per square
meters, it is impossible that the number of demonstrators goes beyond 600.000
persons. Experts in counting demonstrators who did the numbers put the actual
number below 500.000. Still, there were a lot of people, but it is difficult to
argue that they were completely representative of a plural society of 7.5
million people. The BBC should not just take any number given by the organizers
of demonstrations.
-Were the
two last persons participating in a debate qualified experts? Wouldn’t it have
been better to invite some qualified, well known, recognized, objective experts
for such an emotionally charged issue? There are scholars who have very good
research on comparative nationalism and the determinants of secessionism, such
as Branko Milanovic or Will Kymlicka, who can shed real light on the comparison
of Scotland and Catalonia, and between these and other realities. Local
nationalists tend to feel very unique, but the fact is that there are identity
and sovereignty problems all over the world.
-Present a
deeper view of Catalan history, how despite Catalan culture and language being
discriminated for much of modern history, there are many links between Catalans
and the rest of Spain, with many, perhaps most Catalans having relatives in
other parts of Spain and speaking Spanish as their first language (true, some
Spanish speaking Catalans also support independence, but hardly a majority).
There is a strong Federalist tradition in Catalonia, a plural society inside a
plural Spain that might better find
solution to its identity and institutional problems in a united, federal
Europe.
-The
presenter of Newsnight Scotland asked a very good question to the Catalan young
academic about what she thought about the fact that the Catalans had voted just
a bit more than 30 years ago vastly in favour of the Spanish Constitution. Other
possible questions next time may include: can independence or
self-determination be generalized to other relatively (in their countries) rich
regions in Europe? Wouldn’t it be egoist as pointed out by Der Spiegel? Isn’t
it a contradiction to want federalism for Europe and not for Spain? Does this
debate now help solve the economic crisis, in Catalonia, Spain or Europe?
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