JOAN CARRETERO
PRESIDENT
REAGRUPAMENT INDEPENDENTISTA (RCAT)
(26.09.2011)
Building our Freedom
Spain is a state; this is why those who advocate for its continuity act to protect it. There is nothing extraordinary in this behaviour.
We have seen the Spanish Constitutional Court acting in defence of the unity of Spain, denying at the same time the existence of the Catalan nation. Even more recently the Spanish Supreme Court has acted with this intentionality in mind, dictating sentences of a clear political content concerning the usage of Catalan at school. Meanwhile the Spanish media have also placed themselves at the forefront when it comes to defend the unity of the state.
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| JOAN CARRETERO |
All three powers; legislative, executive and judiciary together with the fourth power, the press have understood perfectly that Catalonia walks with firm step towards independence. But it seems that only we Catalans recognize this fact.
We have seen clearly how the demonstration against the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Estatut, despite being a massive proof of the will of the Catalan people, has not had any repercussions in rest of the Spanish state. Was it necessary? No doubt it was, but demonstrations alone will not lead us anywhere. Madrid laughs at our fussing, the day after the Catalan MPs where back to business negotiating the state budget, everything returned to normality.
That is why our project, the Independence of Catalonia, must have positive foundations, not reactive, because only a national project, not a party project answers to the needs that now position Catalonia in a way of no return in its history. We either walk towards freedom or to the complete disappearance as a people. Independents or residuals? Asks the president Pujol, we must answer despite the response is obvious. We do not want to destroy, blow up nor harm anything or anyone; we want to proclaim our right to exist as Catalans, to hold as such a sovereign organization that makes us a normal people in the world.
Inaction is not in the character of Reagrupament Independentista. That is why we want to participate in the upcoming Spanish elections, because we are at the service of a people, not of our personal interests.
(Translated by JSG)
JOAN CARRETERO
PRESIDENT
REAGRUPAMENT INDEPENDENTISTA (RCAT)
(20.11.2010)
On 28/11 we don't limit ouselves to change of regional government,
we want to change of state.
Lately everyone is talking about the 'useful vote' as a way not to ‘throw away the vote', with the idea that your vote must have a noticeable effect in the results. These are all meaningless words. In many occasions I voted parties that never got into the parliament and I never had the feeling that my vote was useless. Instead, I did have the feeling my vote was useless after voting a party that got 23 deputies and on the next elections 21, after doing nothing of what they had promised to do. In those cases my vote surely was absolutely useless.
I am convinced now that Reagrupament will achieve representation in the Parliament of Catalonia. And it will get there despite all the polls that from now on until the election day will insist on wanting people to believe that our result will be zero. The aim of these polls is to take care the ones that win are the ones that always won, demobilize our associates, our thousands of future voters and to persuade the public that the Reagrupament vote is a wasted vote.
Do not believe them. The only vote that is useless is the one that betrays your own convictions. The most useless vote is the vote given to a party you already know will not be able to fulfil their promises: no economic agreement with Spain, no federal state, no reforms of the Constitution, nor a self-determination referendum. All of this is impossible with the Spanish law in hand. The only possible step is the unilateral proclamation of independence from the Parliament of Catalonia. Only that depends on the free will of the Catalan citizens, the only step that does not require negotiations with the Spaniards.
But to make it possible we need a minimum of 68 deputies. Do you believe any of the political parties that are participating to the election on November 28, will be willing to take this step towards freedom of Catalonia? Do you think any of the candidates for deputy of these formations have the courage to carry out this act of sovereignty? If until now they have not even been able to make a new statute, nor a worthy funding system, nor anything with which we've able to make a millimetre of progress in the process towards sovereignty ... What should make us think now they will be able to make a step forward after 28-11, or that they will be able to take a step towards having a Catalan State?
Do not believe them. The only vote that is useless is the one that betrays your own convictions. The most useless vote is the vote given to a party you already know will not be able to fulfil their promises: no economic agreement with Spain, no federal state, no reforms of the Constitution, nor a self-determination referendum. All of this is impossible with the Spanish law in hand. The only possible step is the unilateral proclamation of independence from the Parliament of Catalonia. Only that depends on the free will of the Catalan citizens, the only step that does not require negotiations with the Spaniards.
But to make it possible we need a minimum of 68 deputies. Do you believe any of the political parties that are participating to the election on November 28, will be willing to take this step towards freedom of Catalonia? Do you think any of the candidates for deputy of these formations have the courage to carry out this act of sovereignty? If until now they have not even been able to make a new statute, nor a worthy funding system, nor anything with which we've able to make a millimetre of progress in the process towards sovereignty ... What should make us think now they will be able to make a step forward after 28-11, or that they will be able to take a step towards having a Catalan State?
Reagrupament’s only objectives are: independence, democratic regeneration and work. That is: a Catalan state, high quality democracy and a society that seeks entrepreneurial excellence. We do not want to manage the government of a Spanish autonomous region, we do not want to occupy any vacancies in the Spanish administration, with their salaries and bureaucratic chairs. We have taken a commitment to Catalan society, to all those who are determined to vote for independence on 28-11: that we'll move this country towards sovereignty and that we will work to achieve that a minimum of 68 deputies are in favour of proclaiming the independence of Catalonia. I know, looking at the political landscape around us, that if we don’t do this nobody else will.
On November 28 it is important to put an end to the actual coalition, it is important to have a majority in Parliament in favour of sovereignty, it is essential that the Catalan patriots don’t stay at home.
Above all, we must have courage, tenacity and ambition: we don’t propose just a change of regional government; we want to make the first step to make a change of state, from the Spanish state to a Catalan state. Now this only depends on the Catalans
(Translated by MMG)
INTERVIEW TO RUT CARANDELL,
VICEPRESIDENT OF REAGRUPAMENT (27.06.2011)
"The movement of the indignados,
in its conception, is deeply Spanish"
Maria COLL
Reagrupament has celebrated this weekend, two years after its creation, the 4th Assembly of the formation. A good moment to value the work made until now and the electoral results, which left them out of the Parliament of Catalonia and of the City Council of Barcelona in the last elections. The Reagrupament’s vice-president, Rut Carandell, warns that the project of the formation is clear at this moment: to work for the unit of the independence.
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| RUT CARANDELL |
We have supported the same paper, basically, but we have taken into account several events that happened in this past year and a half that we must bear in mind, such as the ending of the local opinion polls, the sentence of the Estatut and its rejection, the decision of The Hague Court about the independence of Kosovo, the “indignados” (indignant protesters) movement — which reinforces our democratic regeneration demands.
But these facts…do they modify the way of working or the next steps of Reagrupament to be undertaken?
No, they don’t. There hasn’t been any amendment that redefined the way of working that we have been using until now. Nobody has criticized that we are an association of political action. It has also been maintained the will to take part in the elections, either through coalitions or through giving support to a candidacy as broad as possible. The line is to maintain the same status regarding our political work.
The Assembly has approved improvements in the regulation of the organization. It has been decided to reduce the number of members of the board, but why?
We want to create a more dynamic board and we want for everyone that takes part in it to have responsibilities. We want a more executive organ.
But this organizational structure is one of a political party…
But this organizational structure is one of a political party…
No, it isn’t. We keep being an association that wants to do politics. We don’t like political parties. We work for projects and we have a lot of impact on the territorial assemblies. We will also promote trade associations in order to check the routes and the corpus that we want to present to the elections.
There are still the same purposes.
There has been a regeneration of people, but there are people more known than others. We have incorporated to the board a person for every veguería (future substitutes of the current catalan provinces), therefore, there are nine new people. But yes, there are eighteen people that aren’t new, because we already were a work team before.
Throughout these two years, what mistakes have you made?
We have to improve the organizational aspect. We have also checked the numbers and have congratulated ourselves because of the balances of the accounts. We keep being autonomous and we do not owe anything to the banks. We have also stated that it’s very difficult to break the parties system and try to get the offers to the people. Therefore, we have to fit the speech to messages that the people understand.
There are still the same purposes.
There has been a regeneration of people, but there are people more known than others. We have incorporated to the board a person for every veguería (future substitutes of the current catalan provinces), therefore, there are nine new people. But yes, there are eighteen people that aren’t new, because we already were a work team before.
Throughout these two years, what mistakes have you made?
We have to improve the organizational aspect. We have also checked the numbers and have congratulated ourselves because of the balances of the accounts. We keep being autonomous and we do not owe anything to the banks. We have also stated that it’s very difficult to break the parties system and try to get the offers to the people. Therefore, we have to fit the speech to messages that the people understand.
The fact that, unlike other independence parties, yours must act from outside the Parliament, has it made you consider something?
We have stated that there were no other offers like ours in terms of regeneration. We maintain the will to look for cross-dimensional topics about independence. And we undertake to seek the unity among those parties that want to give a step forward to the independence, from ERC to Convergència, since none of those parties will do anything on their own. We want to lay the foundations to get all this off the ground.
What is your evaluation of the electoral results?
We have obtained around fifty councilors. We have people from CUP, for example, in Girona; people who has field with CiU, like in Olot or Vilanova; with Solidaritat, in Tàrrega, or also with ERC. This proves that the cross-dimensional aspect that we want, and that in these elections we have put it into practice spontaneously, is possible. And it is in this aspect that we have to work on.
We have obtained around fifty councilors. We have people from CUP, for example, in Girona; people who has field with CiU, like in Olot or Vilanova; with Solidaritat, in Tàrrega, or also with ERC. This proves that the cross-dimensional aspect that we want, and that in these elections we have put it into practice spontaneously, is possible. And it is in this aspect that we have to work on.
…Specifically in Barcelona.
We believe that the work that we have done is good because we have allowed the independence movement to reach the City Hall.
Carretero said that ERC had to be "the backbone" of the independence. Are you depending on the congress of the republicans?
We are, but the decision is going to be taken by the ERC militants. I have the feeling, nevertheless, that inside ERC there are different souls and some of them, that have options to get elected, are not pro-independence.
We would like for the ERC's congress to have a strengthened way, to only think about the independence and so we could work together, whereas as an electoral coalitions or only as a support. ERC must have a role in the end of this dispersion.
In this sense, are you sorry that Portabella has decided not to stand for?
The most important thing is not the people but the ideas that triumph in the congress. We will not talk about the people of other organizations. But if we coincide while working it will be much easier.
There was a talking of making a coalition of independence parties to face the elections of the Congress of the Deputies. Would you be ready to take part in it? Is there something concrete?
Any offer in that sense is of our interest we are ready to work in favor of the unity of the independence parties, just like the assembly has approved. We will bet on the unity a hundred percent.
Therefore, you do not reject to stand for the general election.
We do not exclude any kind of elections.
If there is no unity, you will go for it also on your own.
The concrete decision of standing for to a Spanish election would have to be debated in another assembly.
If Zapatero brings forward the elections in autumn there is not a lot of time to decide.
Yes, but if it is necessary, it is not difficult to summon an assembly. First we should know if more forces will go or if we should go alone and which would be the program of these forces ... it does not only depends on us. We, nevertheless, do not reject any idea.
After a year of the judgment against the Estatut and once that the waves of the local opinion polls have ended, how do you see the independence movement? Encouraged or deflated?
It is very alive. The independence movement has not got blurred but many other elements have been added. If before there were arguments of national right and of democratic responsibility and dignity, now there are elements that have been added such as ways to go out of this crisis. Therefore, it has been reinforced the conviction of the people that it is necessary to change the things, not only as nation, but also as citizens. And it will take another level, because if before the contributions to the Spanish stock exchange were understood to a philosophical and sentimental level now it affects us more because our pockets are involved.
But the incorporation of the self-determination in the manifest of the “indignados” of Plaça Catalonia raised a lot of polemic.
We think that the movement of the “indignados”, in its conception, is deeply Spanish. The measures of political regeneration, such as the unique circumscription of the state, and all the actions that are designed, are always thought with Madrid as a center.
And is there some reason for that?
May be they have done it with the will to take away the importance of what has been called "the infuriated Catalan". I insist, we all share and agree that now we all are very infuriated, but this movement does not think about Catalonia like a priority. That is to say, those that attacked the Parliament of Catalonia had a deep Spanish vision.
(TRANSLATED BY A.M)
