Between seduction and pressure

Well aware of the importance of keeping the broadest possible social base of support for the referendum, the parties met in Barcelona determined to put pressure once again on Catalunya en Comú

Esther Vera
1 min
Puigdemont: "El temps del pal i la pastanaga s'ha acabat"

The summit at the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Catalan government) was hastily called on Sunday. Perhaps this was due to the discretion required of the Catalan government’s actions, whom Rajoy’s Spanish government decided long ago to communicate with via the media and the courts.

The Catalan president’s call received a pre-emptive reply from the Spanish vice-president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who can barely control her non-verbal language: visible were the disdain and irritation she is caused by the determination of the pro-independence forces to set out ballot boxes, something she sees as a subversive act.

Rajoy has all the instruments of the state at his disposal and, from this Monday, the explicit support of the leader of the opposition (PSOE), who closed ranks, aware that any nuance would be comparable with a crime of sedition. The Spanish state has no cracks in its wall against the independence movement.

Well aware of the importance of keeping the broadest possible social base of support for the referendum, the parties met in Barcelona determined to put pressure once again on Catalunya en Comú. Time is running out and everything points towards an acceleration in events. En Comú will have to overcome the difficulties of a system of parties that has exploded and decide whether to join the calls for the freedom and encourage its members to vote either way, or whether to step away altogether. The decision won’t be easy, nor without consequences, because within their movement there are different feelings, the same conflict that has already blown up Convergència and the Catalan branch of the PSOE. The idea of a referendum negotiated with Madrid is fading and tensions will rise.

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