Ex-French PM Valls:
Catalonia’s ‘Failed’ Bid Hurting Barcelona’s Reputation
PARIS (Guardian) – Former French prime minister Manuel Valls has warned that the Catalan independence movement’s "failed” attempts to bring about a sovereign republic have left the region frustrated and divided, hindering efforts to develop Barcelona as "a great European capital”.
Valls, who is hoping to become Barcelona’s mayor in next year’s municipal elections, said the push for independence had caused deep divisions and left Catalonia looking inwards rather than outwards.
"What has changed most in the past year is that the process to bring about independence has failed,” he said. "First, because half the Catalans and more than half the people in Barcelona don’t want it, second the rest of Spain doesn’t either and nor does Europe. This has led to a lot of frustration.”
Valls said the time had come to heal the wounds and that he was ideally placed to help.
"The problem is now we are divided,” he said. "I want to see respect and moderation. As the most Catalan Frenchman and the most French of the Catalans, plus the fact that I speak Catalan, I believe I can convince people that this is what they want too.”
Valls – who was born in Barcelona when his Catalan father and Swiss mother were there on holiday – said that the people of the Catalan capital needed to ask themselves what kind of city they wanted: "A city that looks to Europe or a city that corrals itself within its own identity, which is the secessionists’ message?
"We need a mayor who says that Barcelona isn’t the capital of the Catalan republic but is a great European capital.”
A third of Barcelona residents were not born in Spain and about a third of them are EU citizens. Barred from voting for the Catalan or Spanish governments, the city election is the one occasion when these residents can make their voice heard, something Valls is well aware of.
The 56-year-old has been accused of being the candidate of the elite and seeking to run a city in which he has never lived. Others have questioned how his vociferous opposition to Catalan independence will go down with those who favor a break with Spain.
"I’m not going to lie,” he said. "I was born here and as a child I spent many months here but I haven’t been here every day over the past 10 years. But you have to ask, have the people who know the city better than me done a good job of running it?”
Valls, who is hoping to become Barcelona’s mayor in next year’s municipal elections, said the push for independence had caused deep divisions and left Catalonia looking inwards rather than outwards.
"What has changed most in the past year is that the process to bring about independence has failed,” he said. "First, because half the Catalans and more than half the people in Barcelona don’t want it, second the rest of Spain doesn’t either and nor does Europe. This has led to a lot of frustration.”
Valls said the time had come to heal the wounds and that he was ideally placed to help.
"The problem is now we are divided,” he said. "I want to see respect and moderation. As the most Catalan Frenchman and the most French of the Catalans, plus the fact that I speak Catalan, I believe I can convince people that this is what they want too.”
Valls – who was born in Barcelona when his Catalan father and Swiss mother were there on holiday – said that the people of the Catalan capital needed to ask themselves what kind of city they wanted: "A city that looks to Europe or a city that corrals itself within its own identity, which is the secessionists’ message?
"We need a mayor who says that Barcelona isn’t the capital of the Catalan republic but is a great European capital.”
A third of Barcelona residents were not born in Spain and about a third of them are EU citizens. Barred from voting for the Catalan or Spanish governments, the city election is the one occasion when these residents can make their voice heard, something Valls is well aware of.
The 56-year-old has been accused of being the candidate of the elite and seeking to run a city in which he has never lived. Others have questioned how his vociferous opposition to Catalan independence will go down with those who favor a break with Spain.
"I’m not going to lie,” he said. "I was born here and as a child I spent many months here but I haven’t been here every day over the past 10 years. But you have to ask, have the people who know the city better than me done a good job of running it?”