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The recent Catalan independence process has already attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, quite apart from the media coverage. Some good chronologies are available, making it superfluous to present another, albeit more updated one. Opinion polls and surveys, as well as election results, have been analysed, as have the upheavals suffered by most political parties. The paper highlights and documents some apparently lesser-disseminated aspects of the process. Special attention is devoted to the cold repression, or deactivating mechanisms, that the Spanish authorities have put in place, with varying degrees of success. The paper asks to what extent these strategies are likely to solve the current conflict with Catalonia, and whether they are all admissible in a modern (western) democracy. In the conclusion the long-term effectiveness of such mechanisms, in practice, will be discussed, in the face of the clash between democratic legitimacy and the legal constraints of a Constitution written shortly after the end of a 36-year-long dictatorship.
Keywords: Catalonia, independence movement, social movements, deactivating mechanisms, politics.
Katalonski proces osamosvajanja in hladna represija (2003-2016)
Ceprav se ni dolgo aktualno, je vprasanje katalonske neodvisnosti vzbudiloprecejsnjopozornost strokovnjakov v nasprotju z mediji, ki o tem niso veliko porocali. Na voljo je veliko izcrpnih kronoloskih pregledov tega procesa, zato bodo v tem prispevku izpusceni, ceprav za ceno vecje azurnosti. Narejenih je bilo tudi veliko analiz mnenjskih anket, volilnih rezultatov in pretresov, ki jih je proces sprozil povsod razen v najbolj zakrknjenih strankah. V clanku bo osvetljenih nekaj manj znanih vidikov procesa in vsak posebej bo podprt z dokumentarnim gradivom. Posebna pozornost bo posvecena deaktivacijskim mehanizmom, ki so jih uporabile spanske oblasti - ponekod uspesno, spet drugje ne. V zakljucnem delu bo poudarek na dolgorocni ucinkovitosti omenjenih mehanizmov vpraksi, se posebej v luci razkoraka med demokraticno legitimnostjo in legalnimi zadrzki, zapisanimi v ustavi, ki je nastala nedolgo po koncu 36-letne diktature.
Kljucne besede: Katalonija, gibanje za neodvisnost, socialna gibanja, deaktivacijski mehanizmi, politika.
1. Introduction
Any attempt to look at present-day Catalonia needs to start with its historical context. For over three centuries Spain as a nascent political project has had to cope with ethnic (ethnolinguistic is a preferred term) diversity, with the more or less openly confessed aim of assimilating the Catalans (including Valencians and Majorcans), the Basques...