http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-25/spain-mas-trouble-layers-constitutional-crisis-economic-depression-20-gdp-demands-in
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/25/2012 14:07 -0500
and.....
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/23/inenglish/1353700228_287157.html
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/21/inenglish/1353521419_889882.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/11/2012112419512707723.html
and.....
http://rt.com/news/catalonia-elects-new-parliament-485/
Artur Mas, current President of Catalonia and leader of the CiU (Catalan Convergence and Unity party) gestures at the end of a final meeting for his re-election campaign on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / Lluis Gene)
Supporters of independence for Catalonia demonstrate on September 11, 2012.(AFP Photo / Josep Lago)
“Separatism for Catalonia would be an economic disaster. Multinational companies locate in Barcelona for access to the Spanish market and being in the EU. That would be lost. And uncertainty is the last thing the economy needs during this current economic crisis,”
Leader of Catalan party ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – Republican Left from Catalonia) Oriol Junqueras reacts during a final campaign meeting on November 23, 2012 in Girona.(AFP Photo / Quique Garcia)
Supporters of independence for Catalonia hold a major march to mark the Spanish region's official day, amid growing protests over Spain's financial crisis which has driven it to seek aid from the central government during the Catalonian National Day (Diada) on September 11, 2012 in Barcelona.(AFP Photo / Josep Lago)
Spain In Mas Trouble: Layers Constitutional Crisis Onto Economic Depression As 20% Of GDP Demands Independence
Catalonia's exit polls confirm almost two-thirds of votes will go to pro-independence parties that will push for a referendum to break away from Spain, which the central government will challenge as unconstitutional. The more-populous-than-Denmark region is home to car factories and banks that generate one-fifth of Spain's economic wealth (larger than Portugal's). The incumbent, Artur Mas, has converted to a more radical separatist biassince huge street demonstrations in September showed the will of the people. AsReuters notes, growing Catalan separatism is a huge challenge for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is trying to bring down painfully high borrowing costs by persuading investors of Spain's fiscal and political stability. Critically, the exit polls suggest the dominance of separatist parties will mean a referendum for secession within two years - leaving us asking the simple question: who will buy any Spanish debt, even fully backstopped by the ECB, if there is a real risk that in under two years, 20% of Spanish GDP will simply pick up and leave.
- *CATALAN PRO-INDEPENDENCE PARTIES WIN MAJORITY, EXIT POLL SHOWS
- *CIU WINS 54-57 OF 135 SEATS IN CATALAN VOTE, EXIT POLL SHOWS (Separatist)
- *ERC HAS 20-23 SEATS IN EXIT POLL BY TV3 (Separatist)
- *PP HAS 16-18 SEATS IN CATALAN EXIT POLL (Anti-Separatist)
- *SOCIALISTS HAVE 16-18 SEATS IN CATALAN EXIT POLL
- Via Reuters:Spain's Catalonia region, fed up with the tax demands of cash-strapped Madrid, was expected to elect on Sunday a separatist government that will try to hold a referendum on independence...."It's time for Catalans to pursue their own nation. When you're in a relationship and you're not getting along you work for mutual respect. We've tried, but Spain hasn't," said Jose Manuel Victoria, 67, who voted for the main pro-independence party....With more people than Denmark and an economy almost as big as Portugal's,Catalonia has its own language. Like Basques, Catalans see themselves as distinct from the rest of Spain.Growing Catalan separatism is ahuge challenge for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is trying to bring down painfully high borrowing costs by persuading investors of Spain's fiscal and political stability....He will have to team up with smaller pro-independence groups such as the Republican Left, or ERC, to push ahead with the plebiscite that he promised to voters.Up until recently Mas was a moderate nationalist who had pushed Spain to give Catalonia more self-governing powers. He has followed the popular mood in converting to a more radical separatism, but it is not clear he can hold a referendum legally.Many Catalans are angry thatRajoy has refused to negotiate a new tax deal with their largely self-governing region. Annually, an estimated 16 billion euros ($21 billion) in taxes paid in Catalonia, about 8 percent of its economic output, is not returned to the region.Home to car factories and banks that generate one fifth of Spain's economic wealth, ...MONEY PROBLEMSAfter a decade of overspending,Catalonia's debt has been downgraded to junk. Blocked from the bond markets, Mas has had to seek billions of euros in rescue funds from the central government in Madrid, itself fighting to prevent financial meltdown.But, on the campaign trail, Mas focused on the region's gripes with Madrid. He told supporters he wanted to be the last president of Catalonia within Spain.Wary that separatism could spread to the Basque Country and beyond, Rajoy said this week that the Catalan election is more important than general elections...."Don't stay at home (on election day) if you don't want them to kick us out of Spain and out of Europe," she said at a campaign rally this week....MAS RISKEnthusiasm for independence could ebb if voters think the price is having to leave the European Union, leaving Mas high and dry."I have no interest in independence. It's totally irresponsible," said 45-year-old Luis, a Peruvian immigrant and salesman who voted for the PP."It means exiting the EU and a drop in Gross National Product... Mas is an economist. He knows this but he isn't saying it. Why?" said Luis, who declined to give his last name.After the vote Mas will struggle to push conflicting agendas: his promised referendum on independence and his drive to cut Catalonia's high deficit.
and.....
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/23/inenglish/1353700228_287157.html
Just two days ahead of regional elections in Catalonia, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría on Friday did nothing to quell the political ruckus raised by a dubious report, which is unsigned, unstamped and not addressed to anyone, suggesting that Catalan premier Artur Mas is corrupt.
During a news conference after the regular Cabinet meeting, Sáenz de Santamaría was asked five times about the “phantom” draft report insinuating that Mas and former Catalan premier Jordi Pujol have secret bank accounts in Switzerland where they reportedly deposited kickbacks-for contracts money.
Without mentioning Mas by name, Sáenz de Santamaría said that in line with the government’s current anti-fraud campaign, “the first thing that those who have overseas bank accounts must do is to declare them.”
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was more circumspect. “Allow me not to contribute more to this spectacle,” he said.
The report does carry a supposed employee number, which has been redacted. But police sources say that no officer would ever include this number in a report without adding their signature and a stamp.
Sources involved in the case suspect that no one in the National Police’s economic and tax delinquency squad (UDEF) compiled the report. The head of the UDEF, Manuel Vázquez, has already told a judge that he believes no one in his department was responsible for the document.
The money that Mas and Pujol supposedly received, according to the document, came from the so-called Palau case, in which Mas’ center-right nationalist coalition CiU is alleged to have received kickbacks for awarding contracts.
However, the details contained in the phantom report do not provide any new information about the Palau case, otherwise this would have been passed on to the investigating judge.
After a 24-hour investigation, the Interior Ministry confirmed that they had no record of the report, but the content, as reported by Spanish daily El Mundo, contained information about the case from the internet and from other minutes.
Vázquez corroborated comments by the Interior Ministry to the effect that the report appeared to have been drawn up outside normal procedures of the UDEF.
The existence of the draft report was announced last week by El Mundo, just 10 days ahead of the Catalan regional elections, due to take place on November 25.
Mas has attributed the furor sparked by the report to a ploy of the “sewers” of the state to try to influence the outcome of the elections, in which the CiU is hoping to garner an absolute majority in order to push ahead with plans to hold a referendum on independence for Catalonia. Opinion polls suggest Mas will fall short of what he needs.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/21/inenglish/1353521419_889882.html
Mystery continues to surround the origin of a draft police report that suggests senior members of the CiU Catalan nationalist coalition — including current regional premier Artur Mas, Mas’ father, and the center-right bloc’s founder Jordi Pujol, who governed the region for 23 years — have been involved in fraudulent activities. The daily El Mundohas been picking over the purported document since last Friday.
The report, which is not being used as part of any investigation, according to the Interior Ministry, was supposedly drawn up by the Fiscal and Economic Crime Unit (UDEF). Its contents supposedly contain allegations that Mas and Pujol profited from illicit commissions granted through the Palau de la Música concert hall in Barcelona. The ministry has suggested that it may have been an extracurricular undertaking leaked to the media. Mas has accused the government of waging a “dirty war” against him ahead of regional elections in Catalonia on November 25.
According to the government, the document does not officially exist. The Interior Ministry, however, while admitting that the report is “irregular,” says that the majority of the claims it makes come from “scattered material” accumulated during the 2009 Palau Case investigation into alleged corruption at the concert hall. A Treasury investigation into the director of the Fundació Palau de la Música-Orfeó Català, Fèlix Millet, and his right-hand man Jordi Muntull, alleges that 24 million euros were skimmed from money granted to the Palau to stage performances and maintain its choir. A separate inquiry was opened when evidence emerged that some of this money was diverted to the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) political grouping — part of the CiU coalition on which Pujol sits as president and Mas as general secretary — through the bloc’s Ramon Trias Fargas Foundation.
Police and Treasury reports accuse the construction company Ferrovial of paying commissions for public works contracts to the government of Pujol. The company is alleged to have awarded vast sums of money to the Palau under the guise of patronage, money that in reality funded illicit commissions for contracts to build Barcelona’s Cuidad de la Justicia courthouses and Line 9 of the city’s Metro. Millet acted as intermediary for the payments, which represented four percent of the total; 2.5 percent went to the CDC and 1.5 percent to Millet, Montull and their associates.
The material supposedly contained in the phantom document includes judicial reports on the case written between 2001 and 2012, but these make no mention of Mas, his father or Pujol. The new information, according to the ministry, derives from other paperwork connected to the investigation: anonymous police minutes and statements by informers.
The last official UDEF report into illicit financing of the CDC through the Palau was filed in May but does not directly accuse “political leaders or their direct family members.” The phantom document, though, states that the cut from Millet’s machinations also included payments to “the personal accounts of the leaders” of the party; Mas, Pujol and the serving interior chief Felipe Puig. According to El Mundo, the document also accuses the Mossos d’Esquadra police force of hiding the existence of an anonymous letter that includes “very sensitive data and documents related to the Pujol family and Artur Mas.” This document apparently contains information about commissions allegedly paid to Mas’ father in Liechtenstein, part of which was later diverted to Mas. The accounts contained two million euros and Mas senior has also confessed to holding a Swiss account with a similar figure. The police say that “no operation exists that can justify such an amount of money.”
The judge investigating the case has rejected the validity of the phantom document and last Friday said that he “did not know of its existence.” He has not ordered any further investigation into alleged illegal financing of CDC and reminded the UDEF that “it cannot bring any investigation to a head without the mandate of a judge.”
Mas and Pujol have launched legal action against El Mundo for publishing the information.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/11/2012112419512707723.html
Polls open in snap vote for Spain's Catalonia | |
Regional poll may set stage for secession from Spain for northeastern region, the country's largest.
Last Modified: 25 Nov 2012 08:42
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| Polls have opened in Catalonia for a snap election that could pave the way for Spain's largest region to gain statehood. Artur Mas, the Catalan president, has promised 5.4 million voters he will hold a referendum on self-determination if he wins a mandate.Al Jazeera's Tim Friend, reporting from Barcelona, said Sunday's vote "could be a step into the unknown" and that the crisis in Spain's economy was pushing the Catalans to seek self-determination. He said a huge match was held in September to mark Catalonia's national day and that Catalans signalled they were ready to secede from Spain.
Mas called the poll two years early after failing to negotiate a new financial deal with Madrid, which would have given officials greater autonomy over taxation.
"This decision [is] for our self determination, our freedom and, I hope, our own state within the free nations of Europe and the rest of the world," Mas said.
"This decision, and this is the great compromise, will be taken by the Catalan people during the next four years."
Referendum promised
With 135 parliamentary seats available in Sunday's regional elections, Mas' centre-right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) is ahead in the polls.
Some in Catalonia feel that the weak national economy is having a negative effect on the northeastern region's financial stability.
The CiU has made independence from Spain a central issue and Mas' rallies have bristled with European Union flags, with the 56-year-old politician expressing optimism that an independent Catalonia would be swiftly embraced by the 27-nation bloc.
"It will be convenient for the European Union, because from day one of membership Catalonia would be a net contributor," said journalist and political consultant Antoni Maria Pique.
"It is a good deal for the European Union. I think that in Brussels they would try to persuade Spain it should not block the development of the European Union over issues of pride and nationalism."
Nationhood
Some of Catalonia's 7.5 million people already see it as a separate nation, with its own language and culture.
"We sold on September 11 (Catalonia's national day) more than we had sold during the previous eight years," said textile shop owner Margarita Bascompte.
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and.....
http://rt.com/news/catalonia-elects-new-parliament-485/
Catalonia votes: President-elect to mull secession from Spain
Artur Mas, current President of Catalonia and leader of the CiU (Catalan Convergence and Unity party) gestures at the end of a final meeting for his re-election campaign on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / Lluis Gene)Supporters of independence for Catalonia demonstrate on September 11, 2012.(AFP Photo / Josep Lago)Leader of Catalan party ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – Republican Left from Catalonia) Oriol Junqueras reacts during a final campaign meeting on November 23, 2012 in Girona.(AFP Photo / Quique Garcia)Supporters of independence for Catalonia hold a major march to mark the Spanish region's official day, amid growing protests over Spain's financial crisis which has driven it to seek aid from the central government during the Catalonian National Day (Diada) on September 11, 2012 in Barcelona.(AFP Photo / Josep Lago)
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