The intransigence of Spain's Court of Accounts in its refusal to accept a one-month extension for the payment of the 5.4 million euro bond that must be deposited by midnight this Wednesday night by about thirty Catalan pro-independence politicians and public servants - among them, Puigdemont, Mas, Junqueras, Mas-Colell, Homs and Romeva - together with the current refusal of any Spanish financial institutions to grant a guarantee that would counter-endorse the Catalan government through the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF), has led to significant political tension, which threatens the start of a quiet legislature in Catalonia that some had forecast.
Meanwhile, the fireworks have returned with respect to the area of historical memory. Certainly, this is a very important and necessary issue, but the Pedro Sánchez government is using it shamelessly to provoke debates that move the focus of the agenda away from the conflict between Catalonia and Spain. They must not make us forget that it is very difficult to act politically when the core of your opponent’s action is based on revenge.
It is no longer about a dialogue table which presents little hope of resolving anything when it meets in September, even if the pro-independence parties will come, as always, to negotiate with a proffered hand. Rather, it is the day to day that is now a minefield for independence. It is not acceptable for the PSOE to align with PP and Vox to prevent the creation of a commission of inquiry into the Court of Auditors. The pincer effect of Spanish unity reaches such an extreme point that the Bureau of Spain's Congress of Deputies does not even allow the question to be debated in the full parliamentary chamber.
Where is the red line beyond which matters are no longer acceptable to the pro-independence parties? Because it is on them - it is true, more on some than others due to the number of deputies - that the development of this Spanish legislature depends. Apparently, blackmail based on the fear of a hypothetical right-wing government led by Pablo Casado, is prioritized over the economic ruin of a group of public servants, thousands facing reprisals with court cases ahead of them and permanent cuts in devolved powers either through framework laws or simply with centralist legislative interpretations that empty Catalan autonomy.
What is happening these days with regard to the Court of Accounts is not an anecdote. It is the deep state that is shaking everything up through dirty tricks aimed at the independence movement. To the extent that the European Commission’s own Justice Commissioner, Didier Reynders, has assured that the EU body is keeping a close watch on the Court of Auditors' case centred on Catalan government foreign policy action between 2010 and 2017 and it is waiting to see what the final decision is. Perhaps he doesn't know that in Spain these decisions are taken in advance.