Review:
Catalonia Reborn – How Catalonia Took on the Corrupt Spanish State and the Legacy of Franco
by Chris Bambery and George Kerevan and
Šest dni v Kataloniji
By Šest dni v Kataloniji From Planet 233
Ned Thomas reviews
Catalonia Reborn – How Catalonia Took on the Corrupt Spanish State and the Legacy of Franco
by Chris Bambery and George Kerevan and
Šest dni v Kataloniji
by Bojan Brezigar
Luath Press, £12.99
Both books discussed here are strongly committed to the cause of Catalan self-determination and directed to interested readers outside Catalonia. They belong to different literary genres and offer interestingly different perspectives deriving in part from their national origins which are Scottish and Slovenian respectively. Both identify Catalan, Spanish and European dimensions to the present crisis and each of these levels has seen important developments since the end of 2017 when the books were written. Attempts by the Spanish Government to have Carles Puigdemont, the President of Catalonia, and other exiles extradited to Spain on an EU arrest warrant have failed. In Madrid the election of a minority Socialist government has brought a change of tone if not of substance in relations between the centre and Barcelona, where a period of party manoevring within the pro-independence camp has produced a degree of frustration within the wider movement. But as I write at the end of 2018, the rise of Vox, a new far-right Spanish party implacably opposed to Catalan independence, and the indefinite hunger strike by four of the Catalan politicians imprisoned for over a year without trial, are creating an explosive tension largely ignored by the world outside. Although overtaken by these events, these two volumes nevertheless provide interesting background and insight.
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