In Madrid, there's now talk of even using the armed forces against the revolution of smiles, the revolt of the Catalans. It’s the weak who need to resort to violence. The key difference between the pro-independence and the Spanish sides remains unchanged: one is a popular movement, relentless, often improvised and leaving much room for improvement, which is dragging the Catalan political class along and compelling it to act, the other, ineffectual and systematic, is a weak political operation by the Spanish elites, who in turn have set into motion the state’s punitive, colonial administration. One side acts out of political conviction, out of idealism, freely donating its time and money and even its personal freedom. The other works professionally to justify its wages, in accordance with the orders issued by a government hierarchy - today following the course set by the Madrid authorities against the legitimate government of Catalonia, though tomorrow, at any moment, that could change direction completely. We’re living through a confrontation between, on the one hand, citizens who regard themselves as free and sovereign, and, on the other, certain government officials beholden to the PP's (Popular Party) brand of Spanish nationalism. Citizens against government officials. In Spain, over the years, there have been lively political controversies between the PP and PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), but that caused little trouble to the elites because those debates involved only minimal, symbolic change to the nature of the system. Since the very moment Spain’s democracy attempted to move beyond that pattern, when voters gave a majority of parliamentary seats to a political platform calling for authentic change – in this case a pro-independence agenda – the powers that be have demonstrated in unmistakable terms that they will not tolerate it, that they have the ability to generate fear, suffering, that the people’s will, that this so-called democracy, in fact, is in fact closely supervised, limited, kidnapped. The same thing would have happened if Podemos (We Can) had obtained a majority in the Spanish Parliament, or if another radical force had won an election intent on pursuing a significantly different course. Podemos’ political representatives would have also ended up in jail, and their ideology would have been persecuted both politically and judicially. We have seen, we have lived through the evidence of how very narrow the limits of Spanish democracy are when voters opt for something other than just replacing one set of politicians for another at the helm of the government.
Following the police and paramilitary violence against a defenceless, peaceful population during the October 1st referendum, president Carles Puigdemont fortunately made a clear choice to avoid by any means a physical confrontation in Catalonia. His political course is firm, and he is intent on avoiding violence at any cost. In this sense, despite the shameful indifference of the European Union towards the refugee crisis and the war in the former Yugoslavia, the president of Catalonia has chosen to personally knock on the door of European authorities to denounce Madrid’s authoritarianism, the political imprisonment of civil society leaders, and now also of over half of his cabinet, those members of the legitimate Catalan government who stayed in the territory administered by the Spanish state. Puigdemont’s gesture has been received favourably by international public opinion, even if it hasn’t as of yet sparked an official European Union response. Madrid has not only repressed the population that was trying to resolve the Catalan conflict in a peaceful and civilised manner, it has also repressed and sought to intimidate the main actors in the independence movement, even the media, and in the process has disfigured the very nature of Spanish democracy. The desperation of Rajoy and the Spanish authorities has continued to increase after the release of the latest opinion surveys showing that the pro-independence movement continues to grow and gather around its tenets ever more sensible, moderate, in essence democratic voices that do not accept or tolerate the dirty games of the Spanish power elites. In addition to a myriad acts of political repression, we have been forced to witness the complete humiliation of members of the government, now jailed, and particularly of vice-president Junqueras, ridiculed by paramilitary Civil Guard agents who dared to mock his anatomy and how it may lead to sexual pleasure for his fellow prisoners. It was an exercise in dehumanisation, in animalisation, in degradation and reduction to the category of a simple object for this honourable political prisoner. As if he were a citizen without any rights, kidnapped by malefactors, in the hands of a criminal organisation or of a state without any democratic guarantees or respect for human rights. Spain, its Civil Guard, its prisons, hold a prestige they have generated and rightfully earned.
Following all this brutal political persecution, mockery and opprobrium, Spain will ultimately be left with only the option of militarily occupying Catalonia – if NATO green lights such an option, which won’t be easy. So much intimidation, so much fury, such disproportionate reactions, do nothing but demonstrate Madrid’s extraordinary weakness, even as support for independence continues to grow. Catalonia grows more and more distant from Spain, and will remain on the cusp of its final split if its citizens remain calm and persist in legitimately demanding full democracy and freedom.