The Catalan Government, through its Minister of Culture, Joan Manel Tresserras, has long been working on a new law to make it possible for Catalan citizens to choose whether they want to watch a film in Catalan, Spanish or in its original version. Nowadays, 89,3% of film projections in Catalan cinemas are in Spanish while only 2,7% are in Catalan, figures that strike really bizarre considering that, for example, Catalonia’s most listened-to radio stations are Catalunya Radio and RAC1 -both broadcasting only in Catalan- or, as the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries (ICIC) has pointed out, Catalan copies of a given film produce, proportionally, higher returns  and attract more public than Spanish copies do.

Despite the expected opposition by the main distributors the new law seems to be following its due course (see the draft text here), and after having being ratified by the Catalan Government, it now waits the approval of the Catalan Parliament which should take place within a couple of months.

We may now be closer than ever before to fixing an injustice that the market has failed to solve during more than thirty years, thus following Franco’s dictatorship’s inertia of Catalan discrimination and persecution. And hopefully, if the law is finally approved, finding a film in Catalan will no longer be an act of activism, patience and effort.

Even before his constitution as a formal political party, Reagrupament has suffered its first crisis. His leader, Joan Carretero, together with twelve members, have  left the board of directors, leaving only four members on it. Allegedly, the reasons behind this surprising breakdown are due to discrepancies on how to elect the list of candidates to the next Catalan elections.

Joan Carretero, in a public presentation of Reagrupament

It’s not clear how this will end up, but it escapes nobody that seeing the leader steeping down at such an early stage it’s very hard to swallow for those who put a lot of hope in it. But above all, it’s bad news for independentism in general, as it shows, once more, the lack of cooperation and cohesion that historically has made us weaker.

Time will say if the splitting of Reagrupament from ERC will have any positive results in our path towards independence, but so far, and at the sight of this developments, it’s reasonable to think we would have been better off if Joan Carretero and his supporters would have been more patient and would have waited for their chance within ERC.

When wondering about the international recognition of an eventual independent state of Catalonia after a democràtic and peaceful process, it is always interesting to try to identify those countries which are likely to swiftly recognize the new state and those who will be more reluctant.

In this sense, the arguments presented by many diferent countries to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the issue of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence are extremely useful. While the first class countries on democràtic values and civil rights such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Denmark or France claim that there is nothing in international law excluding or prohibiting self-determenation, others like Serbia, Spain or Russia, try to justifiy their negative to Kosovo’s indepedence on the grounds it is illegal (though not a single article has been brought forward to prove this claim) as well as on the principle of territorial integrity. According to these countries, states are guaranteed their territorial integrity by international law, but as the first group of coutries expose, this principle is only directed at preventing states from mantaining control of or diving up territories under their administration in connection with the decolonization process, as opposed to any duty of non-state actors to respect that principle.

It is likely that the TIJ will express its opinion on Kosovo’s declaration of independence during the next months, but few expect a clear sentence on one or the other side. Therefore, it is more important to take good notice of the arguments expressed by countries such the EUA, the United Kingdom or France on self-determination and territorial integrity, because they will  be very usefull when Scotland or Catalonia take their final step towards independence.

Having your website hijacked by a fan of Mr Bean (although at the end it turned out it was not a formal intrusion attack) whilst media accross europe as well as some Member States such as the United Kingdom are mumbling about Spain’s capacity to lead the Union amid these times of crisis is certainly not the kind of opening Zapatero was dreaming for his EU’s presidency.

However, the Spanish presidency will have to face much more difficult challenges. First, it’s the first full term under the Lisbon treaty rules which introduced two new, powerful institutional figures, the president of the European Council and the high representative for foreign and security policy. Second, it’s the term in which many Member States should star showing clear signs of recovery, and Spain leadership will be hampered by the fact Spain is likely to be one of the last countries to overcome the economic crisis.

And last but not least, the Spanish government will have to face internal instability as well, and not only economically speaking. Indeed, the sentence of the Constitutional Court on the Catalan Statute, the second wave of referendums on the independence of Catalonia or the Catalan elections that will probably take place next autumn, foresee demanding times for Zapatero and his colleagues. What is interesting to see, however, is how Catalonia will take advantage of the coming six month, now that this weakened Spain is at the spotlight of Europe.

“A football team was the center of the world, and what is the secret? -everybody wondered-”. Well, as it is said later in the same add (watch the video above), the secret is “la feina ben feta” (or something like “good work”), which is a quality we Catalans like to consider as one of our attributes.

FC Barcelona has completed the most successful year of its history, becoming the first football team ever to win six out of six competitions in a single year thus completing the sextuple, comprising the 08-09 Spanish League, King’s Cup, Spanish SuperCup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and 2009 FIFA Club World Cup. Nothing of these would have been possible without the hard and good work of each and every person in the club, without the coach, Josep Guardiola, without incredibly skillful players, but neither without president Joan Laporta.

It’s not only the sextuple, is where the club was when he started as president and where will it be when he leaves it: the most successful FC Barcelona of its history is that with more compromise with Catalonia and, at the same time, that with most international recognition and admiration from all over the world. Today, the slogan “FC Barcelona is more than a club” makes more sense than ever.