The Government has deployed an intense activity outside to avoid the judgment of the procés hit the reputation of Spain as happened with the referendum illegal from 1 October. A hundred occurrences of high positions in foreign media, a dozen of public events to defend the democratic credentials of the country and efforts more discrete in the european environment, have town the days prior and subsequent to the publication of the decision of the Supreme Court, the past 14 of October. Although the secesionismo Catalan has also been able to disseminate his message, the Executive of Pedro Sanchez believes that this time the call battle of the story has been settled in your favor. In front of the hundred occurrences of external favorable to the reading of the Government, the pro-independence has achieved 47, according to a count presented last Friday at the Foreign Ministry.
The experience of 2017, with loads of police that went around the world and laminated to the exterior image of the country, mobilized the Government to change strategy. The objective was to neutralize the call to the internationalisation of the conflict that had grown to the secesionismo Catalan. To combat this, the Secretariat of State of Spain, Global, dependent on Foreign, devised a plan, since before the summer, consistent in persuading european and international partners of an idea that a few years ago it would have seemed obvious: that Spain is a consolidated democracy. “With the work that we have done against the misinformation you’ve opened your eyes to a lot of people”, explains the responsible of this portfolio, Irene Lozano.
Various ministers, secretaries of State, ambassadors, advisers of Government and some outside experts have offered their vision a hundred times (93 up last Thursday and at least six more during the weekend) since the publication of the judgment, according to data that has been available to THE COUNTRY. To that battery more pro-government have been joined by a dozen of public events organised by different embassies deployed by the world. Europe (with Germany, Uk, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Switzerland as main points) and to a much lesser extent America (Argentina, Brazil, the united States and Canada) have been foci of attention. Last February, when pulled out, the judgment of the Supreme court, the distribution was different: 40 appearances favorable to the procés compared to 33 close to the Government.
Spain Global has sought to measure also the impact in social networks, one of the areas where the pro-independence has been most effective to amplify your message. The 73% of conversations associated with the publication of the judgment have been produced in Spain. Although the 1-Or were not measured these parameters, the feeling Outside is that the international impact was so much higher. “Our goal was not that they weren’t, but our voice this time were present”, explains Lozano.
One of the weak points in that campaign outside focuses in the United Kingdom. 7% of interventions in networks related to the ruling came from that country. As recent examples of the narrative independence has permeated a part of that public opinion there are two platforms in the Guardian newspaper —one of the expresident Carles Puigdemont, and another for the leader of Bildu Arnaldo Otegi— very critical with the Spanish institutions and that the publication was awarded a prominent place. Pro-independence leaders were able, in addition, meet with several mps in Westminster (the most nationalist scots) and messages of support from the first minister of scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.
Although none has reached the size observed in the 1-Or the impacts in the Uk have not been the only ones. The solidarity of a score of French senators, the membership of the Parliament of Flanders, the richest region of Belgium) and the approach of some of the deputies of the German party the left (Die Linke are some signs that the struggle to win international support continues.
a Stumbling-block in the Council of Europe
The success outside latest secesionismo Catalan has been the message disclosed by the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic, on “the exceptional degree of violence” that, in his opinion, exerted by the police during the riots lived in Catalonia after the publication of the judgment. The counterargument on this occasion was that of the Parliament. Mijatovic received in Strasbourg, the headquarters of this institution that oversees human rights in the continent, the visit of Meritxell Batet, president of the Congress, and Cristina Narbona, first vice-president of the Senate and the president of the PSOE. Also in Strasbourg, but in the European Parliament, the secretary of State for the EU, Marco Aguiriano, referred to the crisis in Catalan in some of the meetings held last week.
