Catalan government offended by article published by The Economist

The Generalitat demands an apology for «insulting report»

Catalan regional government demands apology for an insulting article in the Economist
The Director of Justice for the Catalan regional government, Montserrat Tura, has demanded an apology and rectification from the well known British weekly journal, the Economist, for including a report which according to Tura makes insulting affirmations about the current situation in Catalonia.

When asked about the report in a press conference Tura said that the level of ignorance displayed in the article about Catalonia was worrying. He also said that the article was not only insulting but also defamatory.

The article in question appears in the current issue of the Economist and is called ‘How much is enough?’ – on the cover there are a number of articles displayed on the Spanish economy under the headline ‘The party is over’.

Following the publication of the article Xavier Solano, the Catalan government delegate based in London has sent a letter to the editor of the Economist explaining the bad feeling the article has created and giving a detailed picture of what Catalonia is today and its role in the world.

In the letter Solana also says that it is both unfortunate and unacceptable to call the ex-president of Catalonia a ‘tyrant’ and rejects the concept of ‘nationalist obsession with the Catalan language.

‘The Economist’ dedicates a large part of the current issue to analyzing the Spanish economy. It concluded that while the autonomous regions that make up Spain today have made contributions to the country as a whole and have helped to solve some problems they have also created others.

Among these problems outlined in the current issue of the Economist is what it calls ‘the tyrannical provincial political boss’.

The examples given are Manuel Chaves (the current president of the Andalucian regional government) and the two former regional presidents Jordi Pujol (Catalunia) and Manuel Fraga (Galicia).

The report also analyzed nationalism in Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country saying that they are not satisfied with decentralization because they never wanted ‘handouts for everybody but just for themselves’. According to the Economist language has become an obsession for the nationalists which practice ’linguistic dogmatism’.
The article goes on to say that bilingualism is practiced in Catalonia as much under the socialists as under the nationalists. However in practice it says that this means that all classes in primary and secondary school are given in Catalan and Spanish is taught as a foreign language.

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