The start of the 13th legislature in the Cortes, Spain's bicameral parliament, has been marked by two clearly opposing situations: on the one hand, the dignity of the pro-independence political prisoners, present in both the Congress and the Senate, and, on the other, the disgrace of a state incapable of meeting even the democratic minimums which could be required with a group of parliamentarians who, whether the state likes it or not, were elected by the citizens of Catalonia as their representatives. Junqueras, Sànchez, Turull, Rull and Romeva, in their restricted freedom, didn't refuse to greet anyone, not even those who have made it possible for them to be on trial in the Supreme Court, facing completely exaggerated sentences requested by the prosecutions, something which is keeping them in unjust conditional detention for already between 456 and 582 days.
It was the dignity of those who led the country in the referendum on 1st October 2017 and who today are in prison or exile. But they are also the representatives of more than two million voters who made history that day. This Tuesday, they could look those who've set up this general case against the independence movement in the eyes. Others couldn't hold their gaze. At different times, Junqueras and Jordi Sànchez both asked Pedro Sánchez, directly, to talk. The independence movement is prepared to talk, whatever it costs, in this long-distance race in which the other side always says no.
The five hours of the session in Parliament saw moments of the violation of basic rights, like that of freedom of expression, in the middle of a set up by the deep state to minimise as far as possible the unavoidable presence of the political prisoners. From the ban on them speaking with journalists, making public statements or speaking with the media via mobile, to the restrictions on them seeing their relatives present. Then some of it was ridiculous, like when prisoner Jordi Turull had to smoke in a toilet since he wasn't allowed to go out onto a terrace set up for smokers like the rest of his parliamentary colleagues.
But standing out alongside the dignity of the political prisoners is the disgrace of a state with political prisoners in its Parliament. Something which, obviously, hasn't been unnoticed by international public opinion since they went to collect their credentials this Monday in police cars. The scenes of deputies from the troglodyte Spanish right exaggeratedly hitting their desks, so no one could hear the pro-independence deputies promising to abide by the Constitution "for the release of the political prisoners and the return of the exiles, for the republic and for the 1st October", are but the reflection of those who, in the face of words, can only respond with hatred, aggression and authoritarianism.
Junqueras, Sànchez, Turull, Rull and Romeva, already back in their cells in Soto del Real, could well make their own that song sung by Raimon in another May, now 51 years ago, at the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid, called 18 de maig a la 'Villa'1. Those verses which immortalised that concert, in the context of the end of the dictatorship and the yearning for freedom, seem to have been written for a day as sad as this Tuesday in the Cortes: "Per unes quantes hores / ens vàrem sentir lliures / i qui ha sentit la llibertat / té més forces per viure".
For that reason, the Supreme Court and the presiding Boards of the Congress and Senate want to avoid this situation, these images, being repeated, at any price. And so they have no qualms about breaking with procedure and skipping formalities. The court should ask for suplicatorio permission to continue with the trial? The rules are interpreted at the whims of whoever calls the shots... and that's it. Nothing to see here except everything there is to see here.
Translator's note: 1. The song's title translates to "18th May in the Villa", Villa being a nickname for Madrid. The lyrics quoted read: "For a few hours / we felt free / and whoever has felt freedom / has greater strength to live".