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JUSTICE

FOCUS: At Catalan separatist trial, judge Marchena walks tightrope

At the helm of the hugely divisive trial of Catalan separatist leaders, Supreme Court judge Manuel Marchena is performing a difficult balancing act, alternating firmness and leniency in live proceedings.

Published: 20 February 2019 16:19 CET
FOCUS: At Catalan separatist trial, judge Marchena walks tightrope
Judge Marchena has already shown a degree of leniency towards the defendants. Photo: AFP

Seen as close to the conservative Popular Party (PP), which has taken a hard line against Catalan separatists, Marchena has trodden carefully in a trial he knows is under the domestic and foreign spotlight.

“At stake is his prestige, the prestige of the Supreme Court as well as the international image of Spain's judiciary,” Xavier Vidal-Folch, deputy director of the El Pais daily, told Spanish radio on Wednesday.

He described Marchena as handling the proceedings “with great skill, with a little subtle irony and a lot of flexibility”.   

“Let's be serious,” Marchena told one defence lawyer when refusing his demand to have Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont — the main protagonist of a failed secession attempt in 2017 who fled Spain — testify as a witness.

“You can't be a witness in the morning and a defendant in the afternoon.” 

But the 59-year-old judge, who has since 2014 presided over the criminal division of the Supreme Court, has also reprimanded prosecutors for some of their questions.

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Nine of the 12 defendants currently on trial at Madrid's Supreme Court. Photo: AFP

He also cut short the popular prosecution, a Spain-specific set-up that allows any citizen or organisation to be an accuser in court alongside public prosecutors — in this case far-right party Vox.

Marchena warned the lawyer representing Vox that he would not allow “an ideological debate” in the courtroom.

An eye on Europe

The trial against 12 Catalan separatist leaders and activists, nine of whom are accused of rebellion, raised passions even before it started on February 12th.

It is fiercely rejected by independence supporters in Catalonia but also fiercely supported by many Spaniards who watched aghast as Catalonia's executive tried to break from Spain in October 2017.

Such were the accusations of partiality levelled against Spain's judiciary that the proceedings are being broadcast live on television in an effort at transparency.

And Marchena has showed a degree of leniency towards the defendants.   

When the popular prosecution asked him to tell one defendant to remove a yellow ribbon he was wearing that has come to symbolise the independence movement's cause, he overruled it.

On the first day of the trial, Marchena “gave time and absolute freedom to all sorts of arguments”, legal or political, from the defence lawyers, says Celso Rodriguez Padron, spokesman for the conservative-leaning Magistrates' Professional Association.

To support some of his decisions, Marchena has referred to legal precedents set by the European Court of Human Rights, knowing the defendants will likely take the case to the European body, says Ignacio Gonzalez Vega, spokesman for the progressive Judges for Democracy professional association.

WhatsApp controversy

Even before the trial, Catalan independence supporters were wary of Marchena, who will be writing up the sentence at the end.   

Some of those on trial tried in vain to recuse him, claiming he was impartial and had alleged links to the PP, in power at the time of the secession bid.

They cited as an example a leaked WhatsApp message by conservative senator Ignacio Cosido who in November welcomed the promotion of Marchena at the head of the Supreme Court.

Cosido said it would allow the conservatives to “control” the court “behind the scenes”, raising doubts over Marchena's independence.   

After the controversy this generated, Marchena gave up the promotion and remained at the head of the criminal division of the Supreme Court.   

Gonzalez Vega tells AFP Marchena is indeed a conservative judge.   

But his supporters point to his track record as a prosecutor before he was named Supreme Court judge in 2007, and since then.

He “is a very well qualified magistrate, and there is no doubt over his independence,” says Julio Perez Gil, a professor of procedural law at the University of Burgos who knows him personally.

By AFP's Diego Urdaneta 

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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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