The tensions of a Catalan independence supporter

All the feedback coming from Spain reinforces intransigence

Joan B. Culla
3 min
La plaça Sant Jaume s'ha omplert d'estelades / M. GARCIA

Let's imagine that you rise one morning feeling refreshed and rested and, after a shower that wakes you up completely, you reflect a little on the political situation in Catalonia. And you conclude that, following the collective heroism of the 21-D results, all that effort cannot be wasted in a legal-judicial dead-end. That, now that Spain's lack of democratic scruples has been verified, it is pointless to hit the same wall over and over again. That you can't agree with the perpetuation and the normalized acceptance of Madrid’s direct rule. That to insist on electing a President of the Generalitat whom the Spanish powers will not allow to take office under any circumstance nor exercise the functions thereof shows a serious lack of realism. That it is irresponsible to dig your heels in when it may have criminal consequences and even carry a prison sentence for additional people besides those who are already being prosecuted and/or in jail ... in short, the priority is to have an operational president and government, put an end to direct rule and —as painful as it may sound— to regain Catalonia’s regional powers.

And then you turn on the radio or the television, or maybe you start reading a newspaper. And, depending on the day, you come across one of the rulings of Judge Pablo Llarena, who demands from Joaquim Forn and Jordi Sànchez an apostasy right out of the Spanish Inquisition, which turns them into political hostages kept in the clink until the independence movement surrenders unconditionally.

Or maybe you hear Spain’s deputy PM Sáenz de Santamaría urging ERC and JxCat to "sacrifice a Catalan", referring to Puigdemont. Or you find out about the PP's initiative to prohibit by law any pardon for those found guilty of rebellion or sedition, an ad personam measure with obvious intentions: to ensure that Catalan separatists rot in jail. Or maybe you hear that Spain’s Defense Minister, Dolores de Cospedal, is openly discussing the possibility of extending direct rule in order to silence TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio, once and for all. Or perhaps that day the news is about the State machinery's persecution of Jordi Perelló, a mechanic from Reus, for the nefarious crime of refusing to repair a Spanish Police officer's car. Or the charges pressed against Joan Pessarrodona, the councilor (and professional clown) from Sant Joan de Vilatorrada [who allegedly mocked a Spanish Guardia Civil].

It could also happen that the news of the day doesn't come from institutional sources, but from, let’s say, private ones. For example, that morning you might enjoy a soundbite from the archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, according to whom "the unity of Spain belongs to a moral order that is based on the truth", so that to break it "would mean violating the moral order", just like killing or stealing. Or maybe you find out about the encouraging initiative by a group of hoteliers in Murcia, who have invited hundreds of members of the Spanish police to a free weekend, in gratitude for "the extraordinary work" —the beating of defenseless people— that they carried out in Catalonia on October 1st against the "secessionist defiance", and in compensation for the "grievances suffered" in the course of such a patriotic task.

Finally, so as not to unnecessarily lengthen the list of media impacts you can enjoy with your breakfast, lunch or dinner, there are also recent statements by the chairman of Foment del Treball [a Catalan unionist employers’ group], Joaquim Gay de Montellà y Ferrer-Vidal, who seems to be trying to emulate some of his most sinister predecessors: Albert Rusiñol (the inventor of the hunger pact against troublesome workers) or those other business leaders who ran to lick the boots of General Miguel Primo de Rivera in September 1923. Mr. Gay de Montellà says that Foment would prefer "a unionist, or constitutionalist government, at this point." The votes democratically cast by the people [in the December elections], which point in the opposite direction, must be an unimportant detail to him.

Once you have learned of these statements, gestures, and threats, the sensible intentions you had when you left the shower begin to fade away. Faced with the avalanche of hostility, repression, hatred, and contempt for two million plus Catalans, pragmatism fades, realism weakens, and an impulse of wounded dignity drives you to put up an all-out, unwavering resistance. If the only way to respond to the grievances is to go headfirst towards a new collision with the State, then so be it, regardless of who falls, and regardless of cost.

On the issue of the president’s election, for the past few weeks the media have been speaking of the opposed positions within the independence movement: between realists, or pragmatists (ERC, part of the PDECat ...), and legitimists, or intransigents (JxCat, CUP ...). In fact, I have the impression that this duality, this tension between prudence and the need to fight to the bitter end, exists within the spirit of every supporter of independence, torn between a crude reading of the correlation of forces and an outraged rejection of humiliation, however costly it may be. And I note that all the feedback coming from Spain strengthens the position of the legitimists or intransigents. They must know why they are doing it.

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