Why we will win

The Catalan people’s capacity for solidarity has been tested to its limits by the objective plunder, which no one even has the heart to deny any longer

Antoni Vives
3 min
Demana que la  Junta Electoral faci retirar 323 estelades

"Catalonia is hereby established as a social and democratic state, subject to the rule of law". This definition of the new Catalan state, contained in an extract from what we know as the legal transitoriness law, as agreed by Junts pel Sí and the CUP, manages to expresses in a few words the ambitions of a great part of the people of Catalonia. The other part, which appears not to support independence, or that doesn’t support it in any way, will have to accept the possibilities, which have already been put to the test, outlined in the Spanish Constitution of 1978: "1. Spain is hereby established as a social and democratic state, subject to the rule of law, which advocates freedom, justice, equality and political pluralism as highest values of its legal system. 2. The Constitution is based on the indissoluble unity of the Spanish Nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards; it recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed and the solidarity among them all." Many of these people, however, are already aware that, forty years after the adoption of the Constitution, Spain has been unable to ensure equality, justice and solidarity for all its citizens. The right to the recognition of all its nationalities, also covered by the constitutional text has been mocked by the government policies and diminished by the rulings of the Constitutional Court. The Catalan people’s capacity for solidarity has been tested to its limits by the objective plunder, which no one even has the heart to deny any longer. And in spite of everything, as Joan Amorós never tires of saying, in spite of everything, economically we continue to be in the lead in southern Europe, we continue to do business, we continue to weave our social fabric, and continue to head the league table in terms of creativity in our corner of the continent.

Faced with the fact that "Catalonia is hereby established as a social and democratic state, subject to the rule of law", Spain is currently offering us its miserable Operation Dialogue, involving various leaders of the Partido Popular visiting Catalonia to speak. To speak about what? Of their inability to date to appreciate the scope and the depth of the country's push for independence? The dialogue offered Catalonia by the Spanish government is probably the least credible in the whole of Spain’s recent history. It is an empty dialogue, a dialogue of gestures in a post-truth world, or one of new-lies. President Rajoy has turned inaction into the trademark of his way of doing politics. Perhaps it hasn’t gone too badly for him, since Spain is more prepared than any other country to hear one of its major political leaders declare "Trust me, do what I do: don’t meddle in politics". Rajoy seems to be the foremost adherent of this infamous phrase. The empty dialogue offered by the Spanish government is a dialogue so we don’t meddle in politics, since in reality they have no idea how to get out of the dead end they’ve got themselves into: at a time of dialogue they are taking to court former ministers for having held a vote; at a time of dialogue, their dialogue, they are taking to court councillors for speaking about omelettes and eggs. At a time of dialogue, they can take to court, and even ban from holding office, the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament for having let Parliament do its job. At a time of dialogue, we learn once again that equality and pluralism, as recognized in the Constitution, are not the same for all Spaniards.

There are not so many of us who have been actively engaged in the independence movement for thirty years. Therefore, since we all know each other, we know to what extent the debate as to the different ways of achieving the objectives of national emancipation became important. In the words of Ramon Barnils, the independence movement imposed on itself the need to become peaceful (it is worth getting hold of the article, The Peaceful Independence, and rereading it). At one point Spain itself declared: in the absence of violence everything is open to dialogue. It was not true. Spain was afraid both then and now of the peaceful nature of Catalan nationalism, rooted as it is in who we are and what we want to be. Felipe González said it in 1984 in Toledo (ETA carried out more than thirty killings that year): "Terrorism in the Basque Country is a matter of public order, but the real danger is Catalonia’s essential difference". Because this peace legitimizes us and ensures we progress sociologically. This is why we will win. I don’t know if it will happen next September or later. Whatever happens, I can say we will get our way. In the face of the lack of truth, the constant shutting of doors, the wilful inaction of numerous Spanish governments, we have employed a dream turned into political action, now within reach, of a country established as a social and democratic state, subject to the rule of law.

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