The regional government of Catalonia, la Generalidad or Generalitat, has expressed its position with regard to an article on The Economist, and demands excuses to The Economist for this.

I have gone through the article, and it is expressing a, let me say, a soft vision of what happens in Spain. In fact, the article praises the State of Autonomies for various reasons. Including on this “liberal thiking”, that is, spreading the power (a kind of spreading the wealth, but in the Spanish way) on the different governments: local, regional and centralized. This is showed on the figures explained by the author:

1. Central government is around 18% of public spending.
2. Local or municipal councils are about 13%.
3. Regional governments spend 38%.
4. Others, the rest.

But also the article says bad things about this situation. And I can mention (even if it is not mentioned on the article), the legion or crowd of parasites that this power creates (the so called in Spain trafficking of political favors, and the spending on creating identities (for instance, it is said that the La Rioja autonomic region spent on the inicial times a big amount of money on creating the regional identity), or also, for example, the creation of embassiess of Catalonia around the world (of course, with the purpose of independence!). I pointed out before on another article about the corruption in Spain, and that this corruption is associated to this State of Autonomies. For example, as the article says, the regional administration of Andalusia is the biggest employer, and - the articles does not say so, but I do - is also a nest of favors, a world of subsidies.

What is the attitude of the regional government of Catalonia with respect of the critiques? In Spain the strategy is divided: inside Catalonia, censorship; in the rest of Spain, victimism. But a critique outside of Spain must be confronted, because this is something that attacks the image of an independent Catalonia, a different country. And this is unacceptable. And so must be attacked, must be rectified.

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