catalan views

A few days ago it was announced that Amazon will open a logistics centre in Barcelona in 2017, entailing an investment of 200 million euros and creating 1,500 jobs. This latest announcement is one of the most recent examples demonstrating how Catalonia has been able to create a name for itself internationally as an innovative and creative land, with a flair for industry and, above all, as a place firmly connected to the rest of the world.

“Do not let us down” was the impassioned plea to members of the European Parliament this week by the SNP’s Alyn Smith.  Speaking on behalf of a nation facing the real prospects of being dragged from the EU despite the democratic vote of the people of Scotland to stay raises some difficult questions for EU lawmakers.

The strong Scottish vote to remain in The EU appears to have softened the previously hard-line views of some senior EU officials towards Scotland and our independence movement.

On the 26^th of June, Spain will be confronted with a trilemma. On the one hand, the old traditional centre-right and centre-left parties will offer the same failed recopies of the past to tackle unemployment, improve education and move forward on institutional reform, the three main challenges the country faces. In many ways the lack of reform ambition of these parties responds to a more profound problem: they strongly benefit - through rents, political appointments and relations with business - from a decaying establishment.

Once again, we are at the gates of new Spanish elections and we are heading towards them due to the incapability of the political parties in the Spanish State to reach an agreement. Indeed, the ability of reaching agreements is not in the Spanish parties’ DNA and this has been proved every time it has been put to the test. Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) is facing these elections with calm, as we know we have kept our promises. Besides,we feel also certain that, for the first time ever, everything depends on us.