Formation | 7 April 2014 |
---|---|
Type | NGO |
Purpose | Spanish unionism |
Location |
|
Official languages | Catalan, Spanish |
President | Elda Mata Miró-Sans |
Website | Official website |
Societat Civil Catalana (SCC, "Catalan Civil Society") is a Spanish unionist organization based in Barcelona. [1] Launched in 2014, [2] SCC seek to counter the Catalan independence movement. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Elda Mata Miró-Sans is the current president, since April 3, 2022. [7] [8] Former presidents have been Rafael Arenas, Mariano Gomà, and Josep Ramon Bosch. [9] [10] [11] SCC board members have different ideological backgrounds and are or have been associated to pro-union parties such as People's Party of Catalonia, Citizens and Socialists' Party of Catalonia. [12] SCC has delegations in Barcelonès, Baix Llobregat and Tarragona. [13]
SCC was legally constituted on April 7, 2014. SCC stated that its goal is to be a transverse platform against separatism. [14] On April 23 of the same year SCC had its official presentation to the public at the Victoria Theater in Barcelona. [2] [15] Susana Beltrán, who became a deputy of Citizens in Catalonia's Parliament, [16] [17] was the host of the event and Bosch, Domingo and Coll delivered the keynote speeches. [2] José Rosiñol was the moderator and also member of the provisional executive office. Other members from the provisional executive office who also attended the event were Isabel Porcel, Ana María Lindin and Ferran Brunet. [18] The event was attended by members of mainstream political parties with representation in the Spanish parliament such as PP, Citizens, PSC and UPyD [2] Some founding members were members of the Somatemps, including its first president Josep Ramon Bosch, Javier Barraycoa, Josep Alsina and Xavier Codorniu. [19] [20] [21] [22] SCC also received support from Jorge Moragas and Miram Tey. [23] Several leading supporters of the group has far right connections or sympathies.
SCC demonstration calls have received cross-party support from Catalonia's Popular Party, PSC and Citizens [45] [46] [47] and it is regarded by some as the leading anti-independence platforms in Catalonia along with the movement for Tabarnia. [48]
SCC gave public support to a demonstration of the platform Tabarnia along with Vox and PxC. [49] [48] [50] [51] [52]
In the first months of 2018 SCC started a round of meetings with Spanish politicians and political parties to discuss how to manage the Catalan independence movement in the context of the Spanish constitutional crisis. SCC established conversations with political party Cs (Citizens) and with the president of the government of Spain, Mariano Rajoy (president of People's Party). [53] [54] The organization also met with Susana Díaz, president of Andalusia and PSOE-A, [55] [56] and with Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of Galicia and galician People's Party. Political parties En Marea and BNG were left out. [57] In April, representatives of SCC met the leader of the Spanish socialist party PSOE Pedro Sanchez. [58]
First proposed by Miriam Tey, Catalan Civil Society and Josep Ramon Bosch have formed a working group in order to negotiate with Manuel Valls his presentation to 2019 Spain's local elections as a Citizen's candidate. [59] [60]
Catalan Civil Society went to the European Parliament to claim that in Catalonia there is linguistic discrimination and that children rights are being violated. They also claimed the existence negative effects in children academic performance due to using Catalan as tuition language in the Catalan education system. This is contradicted by [61] [62] Republican Left of Catalonia former MEP Josep Maria Terricabras, who recalled that PISA report does not show any difference, [63] as is the case of the last PISA report, Spanish regional tests and university admission tests. [64] SCC are not the only ones making these claims. Some related media and other similar entities have self published documents claiming alleged negative effects of the current Catalan school system for Spanish-speakers, [65] based on flawed according to some authors [66] secondary reports [67] analysing PISA and PIRLS tests. [67] [68] [69] [70] Professors of the University of Barcelona Jorge Calero (former President of the Higher Council for Evaluation of the Educational System of Catalonia) and Alvaro Choi published a complete report [71] [72] on the issue based on a detailed analysis of the data from the 2015 PISA reports, which reaches the conclusion that Spanish speakers obtain worse results than Catalan speakers all other variables been equal. As already stated, that report was found to have flaws according to some authors, concretely in its assumptions over the population of the statistical analysis, which are considered unverifiable. [66] The same problems were found in another report from Calero about PIRLS. [73]
Regarding the alleged instrumentation of public education, this has been a common topic among spanishist entities. [74] [75] [76] [77] [65] [34] [78] [79] However, there's data pointing out that the most decisive factor in changing children's political views is their social networking revolving around their own parents, children and neighbours. [80] [74] [81] There's also data suggesting that schools can't be the source of the increase of Catalan independentism either. [74] [75] [76] [82] There has also been a correction from a local section of the political party Citizens regarding a sound case of alleged indoctrination occurred in Sant Andreu de la Barca [83] [84] stated in a report of SCC. [85] Moreover, Catalan public education syllabus depends on the central government of Spain too, whose history syllabus has been modified to accommodate the political views of the elected central government. [77]
And yet, numerous and abundant publications echo the existence of data that attest to the indoctrination and instrumentalization of Catalan schools in favor of the Catalan nationalist and pro-independence ideology. [86] [87] [88] [89] [90] [91]
Javier Barraycoa, former member of SCC and founder of Somatemps, [92] [93] has claimed that SCC received funding from the central government of Spain to support the pro-union demonstrations of the 8th and 12 October 2017. [94] [95] RENFE subsidized 50% of the cost of 245 train tickets for the Diada public act of SCC on September 11, 2014, in Tarragona. [31] Josep Alsina has claimed that SCC receives grants from the Joan Boscà Foundation to which Catalan businesses has provided funding. [96]
The Spanish online newspaper Público claims the balance sheet presented by SCC “lacks transparency” given that whilst SCC has only 75 members and 4,000 collaborators SCC, it managed to collect one million euros in funding in 2014. [31] The members only account for 1.5% of money contributions. Another 1.5% comes from gathering posts and urns. The rest, 97%, comes from private donations. However, audits have found no indication of wrongdoing. Félix Revuelta, founder and principal stakeholder of Naturhouse, stated that he and many other businessmen provided financial support to SCC.
Journalist in pro-independence media claim that a fringe pro-union organisation Somatemps, to some SCC members have links, is a ‘far-right’ organisation as it opposes Catalan secession. [21] [22] [20] [97] They claim that Josep Ramon Bosch, [22] [98] [96] [99] Xavier Codorniu, [21] [100] José Domingo, [101] Ferran Brunet [15] [102] and Joaquim Coll [103] [104] have attended or taken part in events from organisations they label as far-right: Somatemps, PxC, Vox, National Francisco Franco Foundation, National Democracy and Republican Social Movement. [99] [101] [102] They indicate neo-nazi groups have attended mass demonstrations organized by the SCC, even though SCC condemns violence and has clarified it cannot control who attends in their demonstrations. [105]
In 2015 Catalan separatist parties ERC and CiU, together with the Catalan Green party ICV, sent a joint letter to Socialist MEP Sylvie Gillaume, then vice-president of the European Parliament, protesting the awarding of European Citizen's Price to Societat Civil Catalana. In the letter, they claimed that the SCC has links with Catalan far-right groups and promotes xenophobe and extremist ideas. However, SCC received the award in February 2015, triggering another protest letter. Socialist MEP Gillaume dismissed this second letter, arguing that the award had already obtained approval at the Spanish and EU levels with the support from representatives from PP, PSOE, and UPyD. In her award ceremony speech, Ms. Guillaume stressed that the award was given in particular to the fight against fascism and in favor of freedom of expression, tolerance and intercultural dialogue. [106] Members of the European Parliament from PSOE and PP Ramón Jaúregui and Santiago Fisas were decisive in the argument to dismiss the accusations. [107] Catalan Parliament, under the control of separatist groups, accepted a proposal from ICV to file a complaint to the European Parliament. PP, PSC and Citizens voted against the proposal, while ICV-EUiA, ERC, CUP and CiU supported the proposal. [16] [107] [108]
In January 2019, a court of law in Barcelona ruled that several pro-independence associations and politicians had to pay a €15,000 fine for a manifesto published in 2015 which falsely accused SCC of having ties to Nazism and the extreme-right groups. [109] [110] The court also ruled that the defendants should stop making similar defamatory accusations in the future. [109]
The Catalan independence movement is a social and political movement which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain.
The Assemblea Nacional Catalana is an organization that seeks the political independence of Catalonia from Spain. It also promotes the independence of other Catalan-speaking regions, which are collectively known as the Catalan Countries.
The 2017 Catalan regional election was held on Thursday 21 December 2017 to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was called by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy after the invocation of Article 155 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution to enforce direct rule in Catalonia and the subsequent dismissal of the Catalan government under President Carles Puigdemont. The three pro-Catalan independence parties won a slim majority of parliamentary seats, claiming 70 out of 135, but fell short of a majority in the popular vote by securing 47.6% of the share.
An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and called by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The referendum, known in the Spanish media by the numeronym 1-O, was declared unconstitutional on 7 September 2017 and suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain after a request from the Spanish government, who declared it a breach of the Spanish Constitution. Additionally, in early September the High Court of Justice of Catalonia had issued orders to the police to try to prevent the unconstitutional referendum, including the detention of various persons responsible for its preparation. Due to alleged irregularities during the voting process, as well as the use of force by the National Police Corps and Civil Guard, international observers invited by the Generalitat declared that the referendum failed to meet the minimum international standards for elections.
The 2021 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 14 February 2021, to elect the 13th/14th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
Tabarnia is a fictional region within Catalonia, a satirical parody of the Catalan independence movement and a movement against the independence of Catalonia from Spain. The Tabarnia movement mirrors the independentist movement advocating for a referendum to create a new Spanish autonomous community out of coastal urban parts of Catalonia, a region that gathers most of the population of Catalonia and in which, in general, votes for independentist parties rarely reach 30% of the votes but generates most of the gross domestic product of Catalonia. It would encompass the current Catalan comarques of Maresme, Baix Camp, Baix Penedès, Alt Penedès, Garraf, Baix Llobregat, Barcelonès, Vallès Oriental, Vallès Occidental and Tarragonés.
Somatemps is a collective in Catalonia generally considered to be aligned with the far-right of Spain and also of being Spanish nationalist. They state to be committed to defend what they call "the hispanic identity of Catalonia". It was founded between 2011 and November 16, 2013 in Santpedor (Bages), where one of its founders, Josep Ramon Bosch, resides. The organisation is led by Javier Barraycoa. Currently Somatemps has around 300 members. The name of Somatemps was intended as word-play between "Som a temps"—"we are in time" —and the medieval Catalan militias Sometent. Somatemps has contributed to the creation of the association Catalan Civil Society.
Josep Ramon Bosch i Codina is a businessman and Spanish Catalan political activist focused on supporting Spanish nationalism. He belonged to the People's Party (PP). He is the founder of Somatemps, a far-right group that defends "the Hispanic identity of Catalonia", and presided the unionist platform of the Catalan Civil Society (2014-2015). He has also participated in La Contra Deportiva, an online newspaper dedicated to RCD Espanyol, led by General Secretary of Platform for Catalonia, Roberto Hernando. Currently he is in charge of convincing Manuel Valls for campaigning in 2019 Spain's local elections as a Citizen's candidate.
Miriam Tey is a Spanish editor, writer and political activist. She served as vice-president of the Societat Civil Catalana until replaced by Álex Ramos year 2019 and is an outspoken opponent of Catalan nationalism and the separatist movement.
José Domingo Domingo is a politician and Catalan lawyer, a member of the Parliament of Catalonia in the eighth term.
Luis Javier Muñoz Codorniu, also known as Xavier Codorniu, is the secretary of Somatemps, a founder of Societat Civil Catalana and president of Monarchical National Union of Spain.
José Alsina Calvés, is an activist for Spanish Nationalism. Former president of far-right organisation Somatemps and director of the magazine Nihil Obstat. He also was one of the founders of Catalan Civil Society.
Javier Barraycoa is a philosopher and Spanish writer, associate professor of sociology at Abat Oliva CEU University in Barcelona. He has been secretary of the political party Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista in Catalonia and collaborates with La Gaceta. He is the current president and also founder of Somatemps. He states that is also a founder of Catalan Civil Society but the organisation negates it. However, Somatemps published in their blog a photograph of him being in a SCC meeting planning their political agenda while stating they gave the initial support to the entity.
Jordi Borràs i Abelló is a Catalan illustrator and photojournalist with an expertise in the far-right and neonazi movements from all over Europe.
Josep Maria Fradera i Barceló is a Spanish historian, professor of Contemporary History at the Pompeu Fabra University. Specialised in the colonial system of the late Spanish Empire, he has also studied the history of Catalonia.
The 2024 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 12 May 2024, to elect the 15th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election.
The 2017 demonstration against Catalan independence was a large demonstration in Barcelona, Spain, organized by Societat Civil Catalana on 8 October 2017, usually named after its slogan 'Stop! let's come to our senses'. It took place around midday starting in Plaça Urquinaona and ending in França railway station. The objective of the rally was to voice protests and growing concerns about the accelerating Catalan independence movement and the recent referendum on self-determination as well as to call for the preserved unity of Spain. The number of demonstrators was estimated at 950,000 by the organizers and 350.000 by the local police.
Dolça Catalunya, is an online blog of opinion and essay linked to the Spanish far-right. It is written in a deliberately macaronic amalgam of Catalan and Spanish and deals with the events, language and politics that involve the linguistical domain of the Catalan Countries. Founded in October 2013 mainly by Guillem Elizalde Monroset, its articles promote the territorial unity of Spain and the language secessionism of Catalan with fake news and the incitement of diverse social discriminations and racism, especially Catalan phobia.
Catalan Alliance is a far-right political party in Catalonia. It is a Catalan pro-independence, and ultranationalist party, that also opposes immigration. It is currently the governing party of the municipality of Ripoll. At the 2024 Catalan regional election, the party entered the Parliament of Catalonia for the first time, with two seats.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Y ahora, ¿qué? Es el dilema que afrontan los españolistas. Unos, como SCC, optan por mantener la movilización callejera. Otros, como C's, creen que ha sido un movimiento imprescindible, pero puntual. «Las mayorías se demuestran en las urnas», afirma De Páramo. «No podemos manejar la democracia contando manifestantes, sino votos».
«¿Por qué no le invitamos a un acto y lo convertimos en un puntal contra el separatismo?», se pregunta Tey. Comparte esa impresión con otros cargos de SCC y deciden iniciar los trámites para traerle a España.
Josep Ramon Bosch i Codina es el factótum encargado de convencer a Manuel Valls para que encabece la lista "constitucionalista" por Barcelona en las municipales del 2019.
Spanish nationalists have blamed Catalan-language instruction as a sinister force for fostering separatist sentiments.
Uno de los argumentos más repetidos por Ciudadanos durante la campaña fue el del adoctrinamiento y la inmersión lingüística en las escuelas catalanas como causante de la situación que se daba en Cataluña [...] Así mismo, SCC, agrupación cercana al partido, lanzaba en junio de 2015 una campaña en contra del adoctrinamiento en las escuelas donde se anima a la ciudadanía a denunciar practicas que se pudiesen considerar de adoctrinamiento, como por ejemplo carteles políticos o prohibiciones de usar alguna de las lenguas oficiales. Algunos periódicos de ámbito nacional como La Razón se hicieron eco de esta campaña.46Este argumento sobre el adoctrinamiento como culpable del crecimiento independentista que también defendió el ministro Wert en 201247, no obstante, es rebatido con datos por algunos estudiosos como Fernando Molina y Alejandro Quiroga, quienes critican la poca solidez de las acusaciones poniendo de manifiesto el rápido crecimiento del movimiento nacionalista catalán y argumentan que «esta lectura obvia que esas mismas políticas nacionalizadoras estuvieron operando durante tres décadas en las que el respaldo a la independencia estuvo siempre por debajo del 20%. Cuando el secesionismo creció de forma vertiginosa, a partir de 2010, lo hizo en todos los grupos de edad y en todo el espectro ideológico.» (Molina y Quiroga, 2017: 61). Según estos datos aportados por Molina y Quiroga, el adoctrinamiento no tendría influencia en la creación de independentistas en el procés, por lo que este argumento entraría dentro de una de las técnicas de manipulación de masas que describía Timsit referida a la creación de problemas inexistentes para después ofrecer soluciones para éstos.
La SCC es algo así como el alterego españolista de la Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC), aunque las dos niegan esta relación tienen algo en común, ambas son asociaciones civiles que trabaja por un objetivo político concreto. En el caso de SCC por defender la españolidad de Catalunya.
Las cuentas de los grupos que apoyan el referéndum son más de cuatro veces más eficientes que las cuentas del grupo en contra de la consulta. El resultado tiene un aparente sesgo cuantitativo, en el sentido de que la causa independentista cuenta con dos altavoces (Òmnium y ANC) frente a solo una voz activa entre los españolistas (Societat Civil Catalana), pero esta circunstancia no afecta al análisis cualitativo, ya que el hecho de haya dos asociaciones en lugar de una no indica que la masa social sea necesariamente el doble ni que su eficacia deba duplicarse, si tenemos en cuenta que lo que se analiza no es el volumen total de tuits enviados, sino la viralización y eficiencia que éstos logras atendiendo a la fórmula matemática empleada.
Notably, the public debate concerning Catalan independence seemed to create distinct atmospheres at different schools. Average school levels of Catalan identification predicted perceived importance of voting in a referendum; that is, students in a school with many Catalan identifying students were more likely to consider voting in a referendum as important—regardless of their level of Catalan identification. While again evidencing the extraordinary nature of the independence debate, this observation is compatible with Hierro's (2015) finding that Catalan schools help craft student identification with Catalonia, but not with Spain.
The results, which draw on the analysis of a household survey, suggest that more years of schooling makes more likely that individuals develop a dual identity; however, parents' attachment to Catalonia is key in fostering an exclusive identification with Catalonia. Results also suggest that residence in neighbourhoods in which the proportion of natives and immigrants from other regions of Spain favours contact between children from different identity backgrounds is decisive in promoting a more Catalan-oriented identification between second generations.
¿Quiénes han sido los agresores? En algunos casos la Policía los ha identificado con entidades de la extrema derecha, que han participado activamente en las marchas constitucionalistas organizadas por Sociedad Civil Catalana (SCC). Pero no todos responden al perfil clásico de neonazi. Desde esta asociación se desmarcan y condenan estos sucesos. Reconocen, además, que no pueden controlarlos.