The arrests by the Spanish police, without a court order, of institutional office-holders and pro-independence activists, as well as a photojournalist, which took place during the day this Wednesday in the counties of Girona, are one of the most serious news stories of recent times. For their arbitrary nature, their injustice and the exaggerated police action, urgent explanations are needed from the Spanish interior ministry and its head, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and a clear and strong response from the Catalan government. The events of this Wednesday, without any possible justification, crosses so many lines that anything other than an unequivocal, crystal-clear rejection will end up being a normalisation of the repression.
It matters little if they wanted to frighten the independence movement with the arrests. Or if it was a warning to shipping ahead of the imminent trial of the Catalan political prisoners by the Supreme Court and using the accuseds' actions in blocking AVE train lines on the anniversary of the 1st October referendum as an excuse. It won't have frightened anyone, certainly, given the stench given off by the whole police operation.
Two CUP town mayors, from Verges and Celrà, arrested. The first, Ignasi Sabater, as he was leaving his house in the morning, by plainclothes police with their faces practically covered by hats and buffs. The fright he had was serious until the identified themselves. Also arrested by officers in civilian clothes as he was leaving his house in the morning was Dani Cornellà, mayor of Celrà. Couldn't they have been summonsed to the police station to testify? Was a performance like this necessary? Among the 15-odd people arrested was also a nephew of president Quim Torra, who knows whether due to his family connection, and to amplify the persecution. The alert from lawyer Benet Salellas that he wasn't allowed into a police station if he didn't speak in Spanish was the cherry on the top of a grotesque day.
They were all released within hours but at this point that's not the most important thing. The arrest of El Nacional photojournalist Carles Palacio was also absolutely abnormal and took place as he was leaving lunch. A group of officers took him away in an unmarked police car. Palacio himself has said that in the photos the police showed him from 1st October last year as evidence he appeared wearing his press accreditation and armband and working. What kind of arrest is that? We've not seen, for example, police heading to the headquarters of the bank BBVA to arrest its honorary president, Francisco González, for all the outrages former police officer Villarejo is revealing of utterly mafioso methods with some 15,000 recordings to destabilise the political powers-that-be, or businesspeople and journalists. Is that what Spain is? Inspiring fear in dissenting voices and protecting the powerful?
In 1968, Maria del Mar Bonet sang a song called Què volen aquesta gent? ("What do these people want?") based on the words of a poem by Lluís Serrahima denouncing the Francoist police's repression. Fifty years later, this shouldn't be happening and the black-and-white "No-Do" Francoist news shouldn't be the mark of a Spain which uses repression to end with dissent. As if it were so easy to silence the millions of Catalans who want a referendum to be agreed between Barcelona and Madrid and who won't give up on independence.