Ne Plus Ultra

international | politics / elections | news report Tuesday September 02, 2003 18:43 by iosaf / ipsiphi / O as if - no borders

being an account of the end of Aznar and Europe of the regions.

Also being a series of reflections on the Spanish and French state, Europe at large and my short treking holiday through the Pyrennes, with a snide nod in the direction of Orwell and lots of little things you didn't know before.

When I left Barcelona last week, I knew many decisions would be made in the Spanish State which shall effect not only the futures of it's citizens but many more beyond in not only Europe but the world. And I was happy to reflect on these whilst I tramped around the mountains.

As I left Aznar appealed to his party to unite behind his vision for another four years of PP presidency of the near "federal" state which is España. The next day the Spanish military forces issued a statement assuring all that since they had not been party to the invasion of Iraq they were not now an army of occupation. The spanish press thoughtfully turned to term the opposition to that occupation as "resistance".

That "resistance" had first been accredited to the leader Muhamed Baqir Al Hakim, who attentive readers will recall signalled the beginning of a land-war in Iraq when he was allowed by the USA to cross the Iranian border last year with 50,000 loyal troops. In this last week Al Hakim joined the list of influential brokers in a future Iraq who are now dead (perhaps safely so for the US/K occupation force)

I had long thought to cross the Pyrennes by foot, to re-trace the steps of so many other anarchists and republicans through history, as it happened the day I chose to scramble along a now thawed winter ski-path it pissed rain, and my cheap sandals were no match for the mud. So I resolved as 21st century wandered to find an easier crossing. I would instead repeat Orwell's escape accross the high (2900metres) river valley of Puigcerdá.

Zapatero leader of the PSOE (spain's new labour) in an interview given to El Pais confirmed his idea of an increased federal Spain at the next election, one in which each communidad (the spanish home rule entities) would hold individual representation at the European level. His last interview on such themes with La Vangaurdia Feb 26th had stressed "Catalonia must feel comfortable in Spain". Indeed it must, it is along with the Basque where the money is made.

I found Puigcerdá to be a typical fortress town turned ski resort, though as I wrote earlier the snow had thawed. A memorial in the town square made of the red stone which resembles marble and is plentyful to the north near Toulouse commerated the defensive battle of 1837. A battle bewteen Madrid and Paris. I could find nothing of those other battles of the 1930s.

The ERC and ICV Catalonia´s smaller parties the left repubilcans and greens perhaps of most interest to readers of indymedia, rejected Zapatero's plan as being incompatible with the increased autonomy they seek. They spent the week puzzling over the suggestion's of the PSC (Catalan branch of the PSOE) to create a new European economic region along the borders of the old Kingdom of Aragon.

I crossed the river plain.

I entered France without papers without passport honestly without intent, quite by accident in that I had thought the border to be "up a mountain", and found in place of barbed wire, in place of armed border guards a sleepy hamlet. The children spoke Catalan, the taxi driver at the railway station spoke catalan to his passengers who then spoke french, there was no visible difference, no discernible demarkation of a frontier that has meant war, salvation and liberty for so many.

I reflected that militarily a frontier on a plain makes watched by two towers make's more sense.
I returned to the spanish side by train because quite honestly my budget couldn't meet the 100% increase in the price of beer, cigarettes and coffee. And without my passport a trip to Paris could prove dodgey. I noted the little plaque erected in 1993 at the SNCF station La Tour de Carol "in memory of the republicans of spain who passed through this station on the route of their exile january 1939".

I mused that it took them over fifty years to raise the plaque, I further mused that Orwell and his wife had already left by a different mountain pass in a first class carriage "dressed as bourgoise". I felt sure that those who followed his bourgois escape did so in sandals like mine.
[final chapter of homage to catalonia]

Those men and women who made it january 1939 were not the first nor the last. I returned to the "Spanish side" and took more careful look at the newspapers, the Mayor of the French town Perpignan Jean Paul Alduy had signalled that he welcomed the idea of an economic area on the borders of the ancient kingdom of Aragon. ¿where?

Modern day Aragon, Catalonia and french side rousillon. To me it seemed natural, the Catalan flag flew on both sides of the frontier, and that language was spoken bothsides of the frontier and surely trade crossed that high mountain plain as well? could this interest the Irish on the border closer to my childhood home? or the folk of Ulster and Scotland?

The french side newspaper called "Independent!" in a curious mix of catalan and french mused on the ancient kingdom of Aragon. The Spanish side remembered that the kingdom of Spain is made of the union between crowns of Castille and Aragon- what is the nature of federalism?
: to unite difference. as a commentator of La Vanguardia put it.

Aznar at the beginning of the week in Castille called for four more years of the PP to "save the integrity of Spain", and after Zapatero's reply, nominated as his succesor Mariano Rajoy, who today assumes Aznar's power. The elections shall be fought in March of 2004.

The next president of España shall either be Rajoy or Zapatero.
{perhaps you should learn their names, for they might possibly be the last presidents of España as you have probably grown to ignore it}

Today the last town of "Spain" hosts "sin papeles" mostly morrocons and west africans awaiting the right moment to cross a border without guards to make their way north to Paris or east to Marseilles.

I mused on the events of the 1930s, the war by Mussolini on Ethiopia whose success emboldened the fascist accross our Europe. An east african woman carrying her children and those unmistakebly cheekbones and dress of Ethiopia/Abysinia/Eritrea/Somalia, the ancient realm of Haile Sallesi passed me by as I came to terms with my surprise. The border in truth was not as I had expected.

Two towers facing each other across a river flood plain as high as one can go in Europe aside the Alps, and not a guard in sight. This woman would surely join thousands of others, "in exile" over that border, and In so doing they leave a political constituency in Catalonia that boasts complete ERC (republican catalan left) representation [no opposition] to a constituency the other side of the valley that boasts councillers of the Front Nationale of Le Pen.

I saw neither guards nor barbed wire but knew something none the less.... ne plus ultra.

The Borders are where we meet the guards.
maybe they happen on the road to Toulouse, or the bus to Paris, or the quays of Dublin just after the boat docks. But they are still there, with the men paid to guard them.

September 26th 2003 the Lehandakari will present his plan for "free and external" association for the Basque from the Spanish state to the Basque home rule assembly. The assembly which lost one of it's key advisors and figures this week, the late Mario Onaindia who died two days ago. He was born 13/1/48 studied english a language in which he eventually held a doctorate and teaching post. As a young man he was arrested in 1968 (a Franco era campaign against ETA) which was then beginning it's not so long history. He was subsequently sentanced to death and 51 years in prison. He served a small portion of that sentance, and upon the transition of Spain to democracy he among many other nationalist prisoners of both Basque and Catalan background was "exiled". He went to Belgium after a period of four years in exile he returned to take his place as a socialist forming a left of PSOE grouping for which he was elected to the new Basque parliament the one which has prgressively expanded it's home rule status. He later saw that small party form an alliance and eventually merge with the Basque secton of the PSOE. He was thereupon "sentanced to death" by ETA who had moved "to the left" whilst he moved "to the right".

In his final years he served as a senator for the "new labour" equivalent in the Madrid central government and wrote many books and scripts for cinema his main passion. He spent a life gathering enemies perhaps more animosity than friendship, and moved from nationalism and social republicanism to centralised social democracy. He was diagonosed as having stomach cancer three years ago. Like many men since, before and after he set to write his autobiography. "The price of Liberty". Only one phrase is worthy of inclusion here: "Patria is where I may feel free".

Did the woman of noble lineage feel free in Catalonia? in the kingdom of Aragon? shall she feel free in Rousillon under the Catalan flag but in France where income and coffee is 100% higher? Will she find her Patria in Paris? in London? in Dublin? Where will her children finally find their patria in Europe? Europe that in the form of Mussolini first caused emigration and refugees from her lands?

To understand the Basque is to understand that in any generation the same forces that have brought men to arms have also brought them through apparent "apostasy" to at times almost diametrically opposed political careers and action.

Irish politics is filled with such men.


We may never say that that was then, no more shall that happen.

To attempt to understand the Basque is to understand the Spanish state, and to move to understanding the same forces, the same trajectories of political development that have informed and will always inform Irish History.


so for your future thoughts on Europe, of regions, of Spain:

September 26th the Basque national question shall be debated in it's home rule assembly the only home rule assembly in Europe afforded the right rasie tax. In so doing all colours of the Basque shall exchange views. It is one year since HB were illegalised but their elected representatives sit still in that assembly till march next year. They shall debate the constitutional terms that to Irish eyes at least remind one of De Valera's "external association" and the tortous conceit which was and is "Eire". Amongst the debaters shall be supporters of Franco and those who passed from supporting armed struggle to seeking something else and those who still maintain that "war" shall someday bring "self-determination".



March 7th 2004. the Elections Rajoy or Zapatero?
whomever they shall have to treat upon the Basque of whom Irish readers only really recognise three letters no matter for years it was the same for the Irish....
And Catalonia, by it's ancient connection to Aragon and it's at times perverse intepretation of federal possibilities, shall she re-shape the European map?

If Rajoy get's the job, then interestingly Spain shall have been led by Gallician for the majority of the last 100 years.

it is 15º raining almost like Wicklow.