Nation, nationality, national minority, and plurinational state… The various concepts with which we still try to recognize and identify the politico-social reality of Catalonia are re-emerging on the occasion of the investiture negotiations, and not all the actors involved in the conversations have the same idea. After it became public that the PSOE and Junts are negotiating a possible recognition of Catalonia as a national minority within the framework of an amnesty law, two of the formations involved in the investiture agreement have expressed their rejection.
In Catalunya en Comú, the Catalan formation integrated in Sumar, they do not like the idea of ??recognizing Catalonia as a national minority within the Spanish State, and in ERC they directly disdain the debate. The discussion does not go with the Republicans.
The commons consider that this category is excessively “identitarian”, since in Europe it is associated “on the basis of religion, language or ethnicity”. They advocate for the recognition of Catalonia as a nation within a plurinational State.
The idea of ??the national minority “doesn’t like us” – pointed out yesterday the spokesperson Joan Mena in a press conference – “neither as a term, nor as a concept”, because “it does not recognize the Catalonia of a single people that we have defended always”.
The concept of a national minority within the Spanish State, which is the focus of the investiture negotiations report advanced by La Vanguardia, would fit into the legal debate on the protection of certain communities within the European Union, but, in addition, it intersects with the judicial battle that ex-president Carles Puigdemont has in Europe, where he defends the systematic violation of the rights and freedoms of the Catalan people as a national minority.
Another of the matters discussed for the investiture agreement is the election of a mediator to verify compliance with the agreements that are signed. For the commons, this figure is “not essential”, although they are committed to agreeing on a mechanism that fulfills the same function.
ERC did not want to enter into this last debate yesterday, although the experts’ report on the clarity agreement also judges that the figure of a rapporteur “is not essential”. Nor did he delve into the concept of a national minority. The spokesperson of the party, Raquel Sans, limited herself to stating that she “feels comfortable” with the statement that Catalonia “is a nation”, without commenting at all on a terminology, that of national minority, which is on a negotiation table of which ERC is not part.
“We will not assess it. From ERC we face this negotiation with the greatest possible discretion and we understand that everyone plays their role”, Sans stressed.
The Republicans maintain amnesty, self-determination and social welfare as conditions for Sánchez’s investiture. Despite this, they criticize Junts for, in their opinion, limiting themselves to negotiating amnesty, without claiming progress in the other two folders.
