If it weren't for Spain's Supreme Court (just like the National Audience court) having made us used to having to pay attention to what happens when pro-independence leaders are summonsed to court under investigation, today's testimony by the Martas, Marta Rovira, ERC's secretary general, and Marta Pascal, PDeCAT's general coordinator, would be two more appearances within the larger case against the independence movement being investigated by Barcelona's court number 12, the National Audience and the Supreme Court. The accusations of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds are clearly disproportionate and the document Enfocats, which a large proportion of the accusations against her are based on, as well as the telephone recordings of different people investigated over the referendum cannot give rise to such serious accusations and to so many years in prison. Neither Pascal nor Rovira, moreover, were members of the Catalan government and their involvement is, in any case, within the realms of the political activity of two parliamentary groups.
However, as we heard last Wednesday in words from CUP deputy Mireia Boya, you have to be very mentally prepared when going to the Supreme Court to give testimony and she did so with a small bag "with two changes of clothes for if I went to prison". It's going to be a key week legally and politically speaking. Not only for these two appearances but also because on Tuesday former Catalan president Artur Mas and former president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence Neus Lloveras are summonsed and, on Wednesday, former CUP deputy Anna Gabriel. Gabriel's case has a specific unique feature, according to what her party have reported, as it's taken for certain she won't appear before the Supreme Court and will claim refuge in Switzerland from where, in any case, she will await a European Arrest Warrant, if judge Llarena decides to issue one. If that does end up happening, it will be interesting to see how Swiss justice responds and if the same thing will end up happening to the Supreme Court as to the National Audience when it presented a European Warrant against the president of Catalonia and four ministers: it had to end up being withdrawn by Llarena himself facing a potential defeat.
In any case, the former CUP deputy is opening in Switzerland a new international front in the conflict, and it's already been seen in Puigdemont's case that the best way to communicate the Catalan situation to the world is using the media and not the nonexistent support from the European governments. In the coming days we'll see the result of Anna Gabriel's play and the court's response.
One of the great pieces of luck Catalan politics has always had is that all its parliamentary political parties, without exception, have always fought on the field of pacifism. Even in many cases they've helped to solve situations which could have led to the appearance of minority sectors advocating for violence. Catalonia hasn't been, from this point of view, the Basque Country. However, Spanish politics is used to dealing with the violence in the Basque Country and has now decided to copy the language, copy the narratives and divide Catalan society. As such, the pro-independence leaders are accused of violent actions which are more similar to those in other places and times. And for this reason the Supreme Court doesn't pay much attention either to the testimony from the political leaders themselves. To maintain the fiction of the narrative in Spain, it's necessary that they continue to appear guilty even though they aren't.