As usual, and for quite some time, the CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy) has got it right, triggering a big debate about the presence of King Felipe VI of Bourbon in next Saturday's demo of condemnation of the attacks in La Rambla. We live in a time of constant shocks, as the attack itself certifies, but we also live in a period of liberation where many things previously served upon us without any discussion, we now put in brackets: five years ago, nobody would have questioned the presence of the King of Spain in a procession such as the one on Saturday, but now – made evident by the connections of the monarchy with regimes that subsidise or tolerate jihadist terrorism – the attendance by the head of state in Barcelona is not only to be questioned but rejected straight out. As I wrote to you a few days ago, when people are not afraid, they start to also get rid of ancestral castrating prejudices.
Kings aside, it is totally appropriate that the demo should be headed by representatives of the Mossos: the police excellently led the capture of those responsible for the Rambla tragedy and personify, like no other, the progressive normality of Catalan sovereignty, because no other state plan would have a firm emotional link with the forces that guarantee order (the complaint from some Spanish police unions, protesting that the manifest presence of the Mossos during the attacks showed to the world a state-like-Catalonia, is symptomatic). The curiosities of life, such as the police reaction to the attacks of Barcelona have meant that the Mossos 'major' Trapero has gone from being the occasional guitarist of Let it be at the house of Pilar Rahola [journalist & author], to a model example of the fatherland: this meteoric rise of 'major' to hero is not exclusively a result of his excellent leadership, either.
The fact that the emergency and auxiliary services also have a predominant role in the demo is part of this identical awareness: not so long ago, it was a very topical insult to put the excellence of our health system in brackets, but the very fast response to the attack in La Rambla (that would be the envy of any city in the world) has reconciled the population with an essential public service that one mocked for its simple lack of urgency. In all this context, it is logical that Felipe VI wonders whether he has to come to Barcelona on Saturday: the Monarch is everything but stupid, and in his frequent visits to the capital he has seen perfectly how the kindness enjoyed by the Bourbonic institution in Catalonia has been disappearing. During the attacks of Barcelona, the king not only has faced the circumstances of what occurred in La Rambla.
Once again, I insist, the CUP has shown the way. Bourbon, this time, will have to watch it all on TV, where all the world will be able to contemplate our beautiful police officers and our very heroic nurses close up. The esthetics will not be lost on us: it extols us and makes us immortal.