Outsourcing political action

Things are going to get worse yet, before they get any better. That is a hopeful way of looking at the situation. So far one thing is for sure: the coming months will see an uptick in the political tension and the social temperature. Spain’s Partido Popular government does not wish to fuel the independence movement and resorts to outsourcing its job to the courts of law. Given how docile Spain’s justice is, why get their hands dirty by engaging in political action?

Any step taken by the Catalan parliament is met with a complaint lodged with the Constitutional Court, the very culprit of eroding Catalonia’s Statute after it had been ratified by the Catalan people in a referendum, following its approval by the Catalan and the Spanish parliaments. Therefore, by providing the same answers to the same problems, we can only expect both sides to dig in deeper and unleash the odd angry outburst.

Now the judicial strategy comes with threats against public employees and elected officials, in an attempt to ignite an internal rift and frighten off individual people by singling them out and holding them personally accountable. On its own accord, Spain’s Guardia Civil has been summoning and questioning Catalan civil servants, public workers, political appointees and even the coordinator of the Nation Pact for the Referendum in the Guardia’s Barcelona city HQ.

The Spanish state must understand that people have a right to hold different views, to argue for a referendum and even to always find the Spanish project off-putting. Until that happens, we shall continue fighting with cudgels, like in Goya’s painting. Knee-deep in a muddy quagmire.