Among the large amount of nonsense I've read in the last 48 hours over the ascent of far-right party Vox, none has had the strength of the trend of public and published opinion which, with different arguments, claims that the growth of the Francoist party is the fault of the Catalan independence movement and which ends up concluding that they're surprised that it hasn't accepted this. I suspect that their level of stupidity cannot be so high as to write this so happily and that it's all in response to, as we see so often, political and business interests. Because although it's certain that Vox has become a problem for everyone, not everyone is responsible for it happening.
Let's say it clearly: Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and PSOE have nursed the beast until it got out of control and turned on them. Maybe they didn't go hand in hand with Vox at the demonstrations that the unionist movement has held in Barcelona? Maybe they haven't taken part all four, festively, in joint events? Maybe PSC leaders, including Miquel Iceta, haven't taken part in joint unionist events in which one of the most-heard slogans was "Puigdemont to prison"? And now what do they expect: to escape unblemished from their irresponsible actions? They shouted A por ellos, "go get them", and they also went to get them.
Vox was useful to them for the case at Barcelona's court 13 investigating the demonstrations opposite the Catalan economy ministry in September 2017, after the Civil Guard entered the department and the detentions of senior officials that took place. Vox was useful to them for its private prosecution of the Catalan referendum. Vox was useful to them as a surrogate for such brutish rhetoric as they only used in private. Forgetting that in this unreformable Spain, whoever hoists the flag, whoever aligns themselves with the Civil Guard and the National Police Corps, whoever defends the senior judiciary and whoever deploys the greatest toughness against Catalonia stands to gain greatly.
There was a time, between the years 2012 and 2015, when much politics should have been done and the courts should have been forgotten as the only possible solution. Between 2015 and 2017 there was another period during which the path was much narrower, but the Spanish state opted for total confrontation and neutralising its adversary. Rajoy, Rivera and Sánchez were very much in agreement on it when Sáenz de Santamaria was preparing for them what was meant to be the definitive strike against the independence movement. Today, Spain has so many crises of such gravity on the table you can't count them on the fingers of one hand: the crisis of the institutions, the crisis of the monarchy, the crisis of justice, the territorial crisis, the economic crisis, the crisis of the political parties...
Before embarking on the havoc they've caused, and which they're only now realising, maybe they should have muzzled all those who have defended the repression, the political prisoners' loss of civil rights, the suppression of Catalan autonomy and the permanent violation of the truth in the legal case against the independence movement. Because you don't fight Vox sitting it at the table for a coffee, a beer and a cigar day after day.