This week has begun with the transfer of political prisoners from Madrid to Catalan prisons. This is yet another degrading transfer. The seven male prisoners left the Soto del Real facility on Monday and will not reach Lledoners until Wednesday, after two overnight stops.
For their part, the two female prisoners, Carme Forcadell and Dolors Bassa, left the Alcalá-Meco prison on Tuesday and one will arrive in Tarragona and the other in the Empordà on Wednesday. In the age of high-speed trains (or, at least, highways, on which this journey takes six or seven hours), the Spanish state requires three days and two nights to cover the 600 kilometers that separates the two prisons, which can only be considered a State punishment, a revenge added to so many others. Look no further than when they quickly returned Joaquim Forn to Madrid, traveling in the early morning (he arrived at five am) after taking office as a member of the Barcelona City Council. On that occasion, organising a fast transfer was not an issue. This, without even considering what, in the end, is most important: that they are returning to Catalan prisons, not to their homes, as minister Romeva denounced in a tweet that vice president Junqueras retweeted: "Just started the transfer. Not returning home, returning to Lledoners. Here and there, the flagrant violation of rights continues and we are still political prisoners. Here and there, we will persevere. "
Certainly, the fact that the president of the Parliament, six members of the Catalan government, plus two grassroots leaders such as Sànchez and Cuixart are prisoners allows the independence movement to have political symbols that maintain the tension with the Spanish government. But it also has negative aspects (beyond the obvious), such as the temptation to live constantly aggrieved, victimized, withdrawn in the pain of repression. The independence movement, however, cannot be boiled down to a mood. It governs Catalonia from the Generalitat and it governs in many town councils. And the first who do not want their situation to block anything are the political prisoners.
Freedom for the political prisoners, for those being prosecuted, for the exiles.
