Why is the SNP trying to interfere in Catalonia?

The situation in Catalonia worsens steadily to the extent that it is easy to imagine the crisis tipping into civil war. The deeply unimpressive leadership in Barcelona has boxed itself in, while the Spanish government in Madrid has been inflexible and worse. This emergency is – for anyone who likes Spain and its people – distressing to watch. But watching and waiting is really all we can do. Spain is not a tyranny. It is a democracy with the rule of law, going through a national trauma.

Interfering in the internal affairs of another democracy and taking a side is bad form even in peaceful times. In such potentially explosive circumstances, any outsiders actively getting involved and campaigning for one side or the other are being deeply irresponsible.

Yet that is what quite a few SNP MPs, MSPs and former MPs seem to have opted to do. There are calls for the SNP government in Edinburgh to recognise Catalonia as independent, and criticism of the EU for failing to do likewise. On hearing this from its activists a nervous SNP leadership makes encouraging separatist noises but refuses to commit. It is worried about offending Madrid in case Edinburgh should ever be applying to get into the EU and need Spanish support, which it won’t get.

For other Scottish Nationalists, such concerns about the future are trumped by the thrill of what is unfolding right now in Barcelona. They are waving the Catalan flag and supporting the break up of Spain.

There was also the strange business recently of SNP MPs and MSPs going to the illegal referendum recently as “observers.” When some of us asked questions about what they were doing there, we were told that they were “international observers.” This is a slippery phrase, conjuring up balmful images of the United Nations or the Commonwealth, or of EU outreach. As it was, the UK’s “observers” were from Nationalist parties (the SNP and Sinn Fein for example) with, as far as I can see, one Lib Dem, the controversial Lord Rennard. Labour and the Tories were – rightly – not involved, what with the vote being illegal.

The organisers of the “observation” were the Catalan parliament and government, that is the organisers of the illegal referendum, via DIPLOMAT, their Public Diplomatic Council of Catalonia (a public private partnership). It invited the “observation” mission as part of its work to give Catalans experience of diplomacy and international cultural outreach in preparation for the day – soon its supporters hope – that independent Catalan embassies will be required and statehood proclaimed.

But the election observation that usually happens, ensuring both sides get equal time and fair voting, couldn’t happen in Catalonia for the simple reason that there wasn’t any other side to observe in the referendum. The pro-Spanish side in Catalonia boycotted the referendum because it was an illegal stunt. It was not a legal referendum. And even then, with voting arrangements unreliable and only one side taking part, nothing like a majority of Catalans voted for separation from Spain in the illegal referendum. After that, on what possible basis can any declaration of independence be said to be legitimate? Why would anyone reasonable think self-determination and nationhood is being denied?

What is going on here is in one sense obvious. In the SNP ranks there is frustration that Scottish voters are not up for another independence referendum in Scotland, preferring instead to ask why the Nationalists have done such a poor job in power these last ten years looking after education and the NHS. Catalonia provides an outlet to play separatist games that were in fashion in Scotland and are now very much out of style. But this is not student politics. It is not a game. Peace and stability are at stake in one of Europe’s key countries.