Salmond: every land wages its war

In Catalan there is an old saying that says that ‘every land wages its war’. This is a graphic way to explain that everyone’s interests always count and that everyone systematically tries to use any imaginable situation in their favour, if they can get something out of it.

This comes on account of the declarations from Alex Salmond and other SNP leaders calling now, after the 27-S, for an agreed referendum for Catalonia and offering themselves as mediators before the European Union, and also the attempts by some to retrospectively take advantage of the situation to justify their electoral strategy.

But let’s take one thing at a time. First of all we must remember that the SNP’s position with regard to the 9 November consultation was very poor. Salmond always avoided the slightest reference to Catalonia and left as much distance as possible with the argument that his had been a legal referendum. This was a position that deeply disturbed the Catalan parties, especially knowing that there had been contacts with the Spanish government regarding possible recognition if the independentists won the Scottish referendum. They lost and now they have waited for the result of the 27-S and to be sure of the success of Catalan independentism to come out on stage once more.

And you don’t have to be very clever to know why: now the SNP, more than helping Catalonia, is seeking a position of notoriety in Europe. It wants to strengthen the idea that an agreed referendum is the way to resolve the conflict, especially with the possibility of their calling for a second referendum. By insisting that the way to solve the problem is an agreement between Madrid and Barcelona, they strengthen their own position for the time when they have to defend a new agreement between London and Edinburgh. Also knowing that the EU is more and more nervous about the Spanish immobilism, by offering themselves as mediators they wish to promote and gain value for their experience when avoiding what everyone sees coming to Brussels: an enormous constitutional crisis in Spain and in the EU. This is to say once more: ‘we are the goodies’, and to go strutting around.

I cannot say that I am surprised at this game. When you become a state or are on the verge of doing so, international politics is no longer a land of values and sadly becomes a land of interests. On some occasion I have explained how I discovered that this was happening in Riga on the night when Latvia became independent. When those who until that evening had been friends and sought our support stopped greeting us and rushed off to greet the Spanish embassy. Whether or not this is understandable does not mean that I have to like it. However, in the case of Salmond it is at least surprising that he has come to give us lessons, suggesting something that will never happen, just when we have given up on this possibility. I explained it in the editorial just yesterday: we do not have to count on there being a referendum, but there is likely to be one imposed by the international community and not agreed with the Spanish state. And this would be a situation that has nothing to do with Podem or Unió’s proposals when in their campaigns they called for a referendum agreed with the state, as if this were possible.

It was precisely yesterday that some people from the surroundings of Podem, still wounded by their poor electoral results, suddenly became enthusiastic followers of the Scottish independentist leader. But they obviously used Salmond to say not that the independence of Scotland or Catalonia is the only reasonable way our country can go, but rather to threaten us that the unilateral road, the one we have taken since the 27-S, is a mistake. In other words, they used the independentist to go against independentism.

PS. Needless to say that this position politically taken advantage of by Salmond has nothing to do with the sincere support of so many people of Scotland who have come these days in friendly and exciting support for which we will never be sufficiently grateful.