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INDEPENDENCE

What next for Catalonia? Uncertainty swirls around Puigdemont investiture vote

A meeting of Catalan parliament scheduled for Tuesday to vote on a bid by the region's fugitive separatist president Carles Puigdemont to form a new government was in doubt after a court ruled he must be present and couldn't be sworn in by video link.

Published: 29 January 2018 17:05 CET
What next for Catalonia? Uncertainty swirls around Puigdemont investiture vote
Puigdemont speaks via video link to crowds at a Junts per Catalonia party rally in December. Photo:AFP

“All hypotheses are open,” a parliamentary source said Monday, two days after Spain's Constitutional Court ruled that Puigdemont must be present at the assembly to be chosen as the region's chief.

The court also said that Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium shortly after the Catalan parliament declared independence on October 27th, must turn himself in ask for a judge's permission to attend the parliamentary session.    

Puigdemont faces arrest for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds as soon as he returns.

“We still have not fully decided what we are going to do,” Puigdemont's lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, told Catalan radio.   

Catalonia's independence declaration was short-lived as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy moved to stop the crisis in a region deeply divided over secession.

Rajoy imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous region, sacked its government including Puigdemont, dissolved parliament and called snap elections.

But in a major setback for the central government, separatist parties won 70 of the 135 seats in Catalonia's regional parliament — two less than in the 2015 election — during last month's snap election.

Delay vote?

The separatist parties want to reinstate Puigdemont as head of the Catalan government, arguing he was given a democratic mandate for the independence declaration during a contested referendum, which Spain and the courts declared illegal.

But Rajoy's conservative court challenged the Catalan parliament's decision to schedule Puigdemont's investiture vote for Tuesday at 3 pm (1400 GMT).   

It ruled that Puigdemont could not be sworn in to office via videoconference from abroad as his supporters had proposed and had to attend in person.

The court also warned all members of the Catalan parliament of “their responsibilities” and warned against disobeying the order to suspend any investiture.

Under Catalonia's electoral law, the parliamentary session to form a new government must be held at the latest ten days after the assembly opened a new session — meaning it has to happen by Wednesday.

Delaying the investiture session “is one of the things that must be studied,” a Catalan parliament source said.

Wavering support

While Puigdemont's “Together for Catalonia” party insists he is the only candidate for the regional presidency, the other main pro-secession party has shown signs of wavering.

Joan Tarda, a top lawmaker with the Republican Left party, said in an interview published Sunday that while they prefered to see Puigdemont restored to power, their main priority should be to swear in a new pro-independence government and avoid fresh elections.

“It is essential to have a government, if president Puigdemont has to be sacrificed, we will have to sacrifice him,” he told Catalan daily La Vanguardia.

Puigdemont has sent a letter to the speaker of the Catalan parliament — who belongs to the Republican Left —  asking him to “protect” him and defend his right to be sworn in.

But Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Puigdemont had no choice but to turn himself in.   

She and Foreign Minister Alfosno Dastis refused to comment on a report in daily El Pais that said members of the government had pressured Constitutional Court judges to block Puigdemont's investiture vote.

The top-selling paper said several judges received calls insisting on the risks Puigdemont's return to power would pose.

By AFP'S Diego Urdaneta and Michaela Cancela-Kieffer

BEACHES

Why are Barcelona’s beaches disappearing?

Barcelona's much-loved beaches are losing between six and 10 metres of sand per year, but why is this happening?

Published: 16 June 2021 15:30 CEST
Why are Barcelona's beaches disappearing?
Barceloneta Beach. Photo: Pau BARRENA / AFP

Barcelona may be famed for its beaches and they may be one of its biggest tourist draws, but it hasn’t always been this way.

In fact, Barcelona didn’t used to have any beaches at all, just ports and seaside neighbourhoods. It wasn’t until 1992 when the city held the Olympic Games that these neighbourhoods were demolished and the beaches were created. 

What’s the problem?

Since 2017, the city’s beaches have been losing between six and 10 metres of width per year, according to a recent study by the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB).

This beach erosion means that every year there is less and less sand for residents and tourists to lie on and enjoy. 

This is not a new problem however and has been going on much longer than four and half years. In 2016, the Barcelona City Council revealed that since 2010 Barceloneta Beach had lost over 15 metres in width, which is equivalent to 28 percent of its surface area.  

In another 2016 report, the regional authorities of Barcelona also showed that its beaches as a whole had lost 17 percent of their total amount of sand during the same time period, the same as five football pitches.

Why is it happening?

The study attributes this to the fact that there have been more storms than normal since 2017, which has prevented the natural recovery of the beaches.

Storm Gloria in January 2020 in particular caused significant damage to the beaches in the area and caused even more sand to be washed away.

In short, most of this is to do with climate change. 

The beaches that have been most affected and have lost the most amount of sand are those in the lower Maresme region and the towns of Masnou and Badalona.

Barcelona beaches being destroyed during a storm. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

What’s being done about it?

The Barcelona City Council has been continually adding a little sand to its beaches each year and moving it around from areas that have more to areas that have less.

Aitor Rumín, head of the beach management service of the Barcelona Consistory told El Pais last month that “the last major contribution of sand was made by the ministry in 2010. Since then we have only lost sand”.

“It’s survival, but we can’t do much more. The beaches lose 30 cubic meters of sand per year, especially in the southern parts of each of the beaches. The coastline is receding and we have beaches like Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella and Llevant, where we can’t do anything to regain the sand,” he said.

Badalona Beach. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

While moving the sand around and adding a little each year may help to cover up the problem in the short term, it’s not really helping solve the problem and a long-term solution needs to be found.

The Área Metropolitana de Barcelona have been trying to stop the beach erosion with their Resilience Plan, which will ask for greater contributions of sand to try and balance out the current losses and divide the beaches up with breakwaters.

In the case of Badalona, it has been proposed that 13,200 cubic metres of sand be added to the beach each year, as well as to rethink the layout of the equipment located on the seafront. The construction of a breakwater on La Mora beach has also been proposed.

In Sant Adrià, the plan is to build another breakwater, as well as to remove the jetty in front of the old industrial areas. The council also hope to add a further 95,000 cubic metres of sand.

It is thought that similar plans may be carried out on Barcelona’s other beaches.

Is this a problem anywhere else in Spain?

Yes, beach erosion is a problem throughout Spain, as well as throughout the world, due to climate change.

Theocharis Plomaritis from the University of Cádiz who was one of the co-authors of the Nature Climate Change study published in March 2020, told El Periodico that by the end of the century the retreat of the beaches in Spain and Southern Europe could be 86 metres, if no measures are taken to contain climate change. 

According to the study, in the best case scenario – with measures to mitigate the effects of climate – the loss of sandy beaches in Spain would be 60 metres and 27 of these metres by 2050.

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