As Secession Talk Swells in Catalonia, Business Leaders Remain Wary of Costs

SANT SADURNÍ D’ANOIA, Spain — Sparkling Cava wine has become an emblem of Catalonia as one of the strongest exports from Spain’s northeastern region. Over the last decade, annual shipments of cava have climbed about 50 percent, to 161 million bottles. 

Migrant workers in Freixenet’s vineyards.

Which is why cava’s producers show no desire to embrace the Catalan secessionist drive that is posing a serious challenge to Spain’s central government, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. 

Toni de la Rosa Torelló, whose family has owned its winemaking estate since 1395, said that “making the most representative product of Catalonia does not mean we want to be represented in this political debate.”

José Luis Bonet Ferrer, the president of Freixenet, the largest producer of cava, said, “Businessmen have the right to worry if politicians create tensions rather than seek dialogue.” 

The attitude of such Catalan executives matters because a key premise in the secessionist argument is that Catalonia, which accounts for almost a fifth of Spain’s economic output, would flourish economically if it broke ties with the rest of the economically lagging nation. Some businesspeople are not so certain. 

It is not just the cava vintners saying this, but also executives from the spectrum of industries that make up Catalonia’s 200 billion euro economy, roughly equivalent to that of Portugal. The region blends a powerful financial-services sector, led by the big bank La Caixa, with a strong industrial base that includes traditional sectors like car manufacturing as well as scientific research and medical technology. 

This week the Catalan regional government, led by Artur Mas, quantified exactly what it thought the central government owed Catalonia, in terms of insufficient investments and fiscal disadvantages: 9.4 billion euros, including 5.8 billion euros of infrastructure spending. 

In response, the central government said on Wednesday that it would soon publish its own set of figures to dismantle the Catalan claim that the region’s contribution to the national economy and its tax revenue is far more than what it gets back from Madrid. 

But with Spain expected to post economic data for the third quarter showing that it has finally emerged from a two-year recession — its second downturn since 2008 — Catalan businesspeople say they worry less about what Mr. Mas thinks Madrid owes his region and more about whether political instability could hamper Spain’s prospects of returning to precrisis growth levels. “In any diverse society, there are different points of view, but it’s clear entrepreneurs prefer to operate in a context of certainty,” said Salvador Alemany, the chairman of Abertis, which is based in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, and which is one of Europe’s biggest operators of toll roads and airports. “Consensus is always better than conflict.” 

Still, there has been little sign of consensus of late. In September, hundreds of thousands of pro-independence people joined hands to form a human chain across Catalonia. Following that show of force, Mr. Mas said Catalonia would forge ahead with plans to hold a referendum on independence next year, despite Madrid’s warning that such a vote would violate Spanish law.

Mr. Rajoy recently called on Mr. Mas to show “magnanimity” and drop the r

eferendum plan. Mr. Mas responded that it was instead for Mr. Rajoy to be magnanimous and give Catalans the right to vote. 

Catalans have long defended their ancestral culture and language. But secessionism shifted from fringe to mainstream political thinking a little more than a year ago after Mr. Mas failed to convince Mr. Rajoy that Catalonia should be allowed to reduce its contribution to a fiscal system that redistributes part of the tax revenues to other, poorer regions of Spain. Catalonia’s 7.5 million inhabitants represent 16 percent of the Spanish population. 

But Catalonia has also benefited from being part of greater Spain. For example, it was the 1992 Olympics — in part financed by the Madrid government — that helped transform Barcelona into one of Europe’s most visited cities, with more than seven million tourists a year, compared with one million before.

Some Catalan executives have clearly embraced secessionism, particularly members of the 100-strong business association called FemCAT, set up to help Catalonia “take its place on the world and European stage,” according to its 2004 founding manifesto.

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