01/10: There is a Spain that is committing suicide to stop the Catalan process

The shameful indictment of President Mas for putting out ballot boxes on November 9 last year is the grotesque culmination of a too-long list.

First we had the Justice Minister saying that they had postponed Mas’ indictment until after the election so as not to interfere with it (this comes after Spanish vice president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría claimed, in reference to the search of Convergència’s offices, that justice paid no attention to elections or politics!).

Then came the foreign voting fraud and the doctoring of Juncker’s statement, followed by the abuse of authority by the Electoral Commission in regards to TV3.

Spain has put on its worst face to oppose the Catalan process --embittered, narrow-minded, removed from a quality democratic culture.

There was a possible Spain --regenerated, modern, democratic, open-minded, understanding-- that many of us would have loved; that Spain is committing suicide in order to stop the Catalan independence process.

And the saddest thing is that it is committing suicide not only with the complicit silence from sectors that call themselves heirs of the Enlightenment, of the republican tradition, of anti-Francoism, but also with their enthusiastic participation. I can understand that they do not support independence. What I can’t understand is that they are not against the despicable tactics being used against it.