DAMAGE TO CATALONIA?

by Colin Liddell

It seems that the Spanish government is now willing to take a few pages out of the General Franco playbook to quash the separatist movement that has been gaining ground in Catalonia.

With a referendum on independence scheduled for October 1st, the Spanish government has launched a crackdown that may in fact only inflame the situation. State police have raided regional government offices, arrested Catalan officials organising the referendum, and seized ballot papers, ballot boxes, voting lists, and electoral material and literature. Now the finance ministry is also turning the screws to cut off funding for the vote.

So, what is going on here? Is this a genuine nationalist revolt or not? And who should the Alt Right be supporting?

First of all, Catalonia is different from much of the rest of Spain, with its own language and culture, rather in the same way that Portugal is different from Spain. Not very different, but different enough to make independence at least worth considering. But it should also be pointed out that these differences, which were a lot stronger in the past, were not a major problem during the hundreds of years that Catalonia has been part of Spain. So why are they a problem now? The fact is they are not or every part of Spain would be clamping down on the millions of Muslims who have crept into the country.

Nationalism does not seem to be the main driver here. Instead the region, which is heavily centered on the trendy and sophisticated city of Barcelona, has developed a “too cool for school” attitude towards the rest of Spain, seeing itself as more urban and urbane, more arty and hip, more progressive and cosmopolitan than the rest of the country.

There is even a hint of this in old books, like George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, which describes the rather signally and dysfunctional Leftism of the city in the Spanish Civil War. It should be said that this book unwittingly played a major role in “glamorising” and branding Barcelona as the “cool” Leftist metropolis, which, in turn, fed into the way that Catalonia presents itself today.

Signalling does not win wars.

But there is also a financial angle.

With a thriving tourist industry and better transport links than the rest of Spain, Catalonia also punches above its weight economically, and thus is a net payer into the Spanish treasury. As a consequence, it sees the rest of Spain demanding an “unfair share” of its wealth. As Lefties you might think they would be happy to share. You would be wrong.

In short, this is a very odd “nationalist” struggle, as it seems to have more to do with being “cool and leftist” in a hipsterish way and petty financial squabbles than the fact that Catalonia is full of Catalans seeking to express their “Catalanness.”

Barcelona’s landmark is apparently a
Gothic cathedral built by termites.

Barcelona, which dominates the region, is both richer and a lot more left-wing than the rest of the country. Because of this, the best way to understand its situation is to compare it to California and its secessionist aspirations. If you support Californian secession on the grounds that it would push the rest of America to the right, while also allowing “The Golden State” to self destruct on its own Leftist stupidity, then it would seem churlish and illogical not to support Catalan independence as well.

When the issue of Scottish independence came up a few years ago, I was clear in my support for it, although I had no illusions about the so-called Scottish National Party, a vile Cultural Marxist party, with an agenda that was at least partly driven by unassimilated Irish people, who still hated England literally centuries after they came to Scotland to work in its factories during the industrial revolution.

Despite this, I saw clear political benefits in Scotland becoming independent. First, it would have weakened the UK, which at that time was serving as the main auxiliary of the globalist United States Empire. Secondly, it would remove a large number of left-wing MPs from Westminster, making it much more likely that the rest of the UK would be dominated by center right parties, rather than and alternating succession of Conservative and Labour governments that had driven its decline.

As for Scotland, going it alone would be a cold turkey, crash course in economic reality and a wake up call from a public sector dominated welfare economy. Messy and painful as this would undoubtedly have been, this would also have been an effective way to reanimate the dormant Scottish spirit.

The conclusions I reached then also color my views of the Catalan question. Spain without Catalonia would be more inherently right wing. As such, it would be more likely to resist the forces of globalism and mass immigration pushing at its Southern shores.

Catalonia without Spain, by contrast, might first enjoy a temporary revenue boost as it stopped sending taxes to Madrid. But, then, without the stabilizing influence of being part of a broader and more conservative Spain, its inherent leftism would assume a more toxic character, resulting in the usual left-wing nonsense, such as anti-austerity spending, welfarism, and wasteful and disruptive Cultural Marxist projects.

How did that work out for you?

Worst of all, it would lead to a loosening of its borders to the usual migrant and refugee influx from the dysfunction of the Third World. We saw a taste of this insanity recently when a recent terrorist attack by a refugee was preceded by a campaign with the slogan “Refugees welcome, Tourists go home.”

As with Californian independence, the result of all this would be to destroy the Catalan economy, and thus the support system for the parasitism of socialism and its stupidities. Ultimately the new state would have no choice but to swing right.

Watching Catalonia crash and burn in this way would definitely be a mixed pleasure, but it would also be a lesson to the rest of Europe, while also shaking the unstable foundations of an overextended EU. So, why wouldn’t I support it?

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