By Martin Delfín
Memo From Madrid
The recognition by the International Court of Justice that Kosovo didn’t break any laws when it unilaterally declared independence in 2008 has given false hopes to an array of separatist supporters across Spain. Soon after the July 22nd ruling was handed down by the judges in The Hague, hosts of Catalans, Basques and even Galicians celebrated what they believe is a new road, if not vindication, for their struggle for secession. These days the biggest calls for independence are coming from Catalonia where the nationalist parties are still shell-shocked over the Constitutional Court ’s rejection recently of 14 clauses in the region’s statute. Joan Puigcercós, president of the left-wing Catalan party, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), said: “The highest UN court has recognised that democracy is above the principle of territorial integrity.”
This has made Madrid a bit nervous. But there can be no comparison between the UN court’s reasoning and the secessionists’ hallucinations about the Balkanisation of Spain. .Kosovo’s recent history does not nearly mimic any event that has taken place in any of the Spanish autonomous regions. The Kosovans were subjected to a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing of Albanians waged by Serbian warlords during 1990s, which has been followed by hostile tensions between Belgrade and Pristina that continue today. Kosovo argued that the UN resolution 1244, passed in 1999 and which called for all forces of the former Yugoslavia to withdraw from the region and hand over the disputed area to the United Nations, did not specify a preferred political status for Kosovo. For that reason, the doors for the Kosovan people to decide their own political future had been opened. No such proposal is being discussed at the UN level on Catalonia or the Basque Country.
Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega was adamant when she said it was “unrealistic” to compare Kosovo with Catalonia , and Catalan Socialist regional premier José Montilla also said there are no correlations. But voices outside of Spain are unsettling the continent’s political waters. Before the ruling was handed down, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic warned that it was unclear whether UN member states are going to be safe from secessionist ambitions. “In other words we are going to know if the unilateral declaration of secession is a legal norm,” he said.
On the other hand, Kosovo and Serbia, are both lobbying to become part of the EU but Brussels frowns on any type of separatist movements among its members. But because Kosovo broke from Serbia before either nation has been formally asked to join the EU (Serbia formally applied for membership last December, Kosovo has yet to file its petition), it may be a long time before the 27-member community will welcome either of them. Five EU members – Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus, all with restless regions – do not recognise Kosovo, and the EU is still discussing a common position in the wake of the ICJ ruling. On Monday during a meeting of his EU colleagues, Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos reiterated Madrid’s position, confirming that Spain would stick to its non-recognition policy.
With so much noise against the ICJ’s opinion, do the Catalans and the Basque really believe that Kosovo is a landmark decision that will lead to the long fulfilled dream of a Spanish breakup? Their pipe dreams are far from even reaching the pipeline.
Unruly air controllers
In 1981, just several months after he came to office, US President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who refused to return to the airport towers. They were arguing for a wage increase and threatened to cripple the nation’s air traffic if their demands weren’t met. Reagan had said that the strike was illegal and jeopardized national security. It was a bold move on the Republican president’s part.
Now Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is facing a similar situation with air controller’s unions complaining of the wage cuts the government has imposed. The Spanish air controllers are the highest paid in comparison with their European counterparts. There hasn’t been a called strike, but the government is under the sneaky suspicion that there is a covert strike underway after dozens of air controllers called in sick last week at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, slowing traffic and causing delays.
Keeping the air space safe and clear is a top national security priority for any country. Should the unions decide to call a strike at the height of the summer season, the government says it will call in soldiers to work the towers. At the same time, privatization of the air traffic positions at some of the smaller airports will begin in September. It is not as drastic as Reagan’s decision but it is a smart move by the Socialist government to deal with unruly employees.
Martin Delfin
Writes for the English language version
of El Pais
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