Nadal-Aiguaviva

This is an English translation of an interview with Prof. Josep Maria Nadal, former President of the University of Girona, who was beaten with a Spanish policeman's baton during the October 1 referendum and had to be treated in hospital for his injuries.

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http://www.ara.cat/comarquesgironines/JOSEP-MARIA-NADAL-Em-Cercas_0_1890410967.html

Josep Maria Nadal: "I am hurt by Cercas justifying violence when he taught me not to justify it"

Former president and professor of the University of Girona, full professor and doctor in Catalan philology

MARTA COSTA-PAU

He assures that he did not feel any pain while receiving violent baton blows throughout his body, or when Civil Guard officers threw him to the ground and dragged him for a few metres, or when they deliberately trod on him with their boots, or when, without the strength to get up, he turned white and began to suffocate. Josep Maria Nadal, former president of the University of Girona, full professor and lecturer of Catalan philology, explains that he felt the pain just when the civil guards were leaving the polling station inf Aiguaviva with shouts of "Viva España!". He still retains scares on his body from October 1, but he feels less hurt by the physical harm suffered than by moral damage caused by people who that deny or justify the brutal police charges of that day, such as writer Javier Cercas, a former UdG lecturer.

Cercas said there only two people were hospitalized as a result of police charges on October 1. How did you, as one of the many hospitalized that day, answer him?

 I was one of the hospitalized from the Aiguaviva polling station, but in all seven people from our village ended up in hospital. That's why I ask Cercas: "How can you say that? You can be against independence, but don't lie to defend ideas". Saying this, Cercas attacks more than 2 million people. 

Are you still friends?

We have been very close friends. It's been a long time since we last met and I don't know if we still are friends. What I do know is that I don't respect him now. I have regretted many things about him. Especially one, because he shows me that he has not been an honest person, and that it is the fact that he now justifies the events of October 1, when he was the one that taught me that physical violence is never justified. I was one of those who tried to understand ETA's actions, as did some who were Aznar's ministers and who had previously been members of Bandera Roja [a Communist party] and had raised their glasses when the terrorist band assassinated Carrero Blanco. Cercas told me that we would not win a battle until we realised that we were wrong to justify violence. He made me change, and on the day that in the University of Girona we held a minute's silence against an ETA attack while a group of people in masks yelled at us, Cercas dedicated an article to me, praising that action. That is why his position hurts me. And also the fact that he says that what happens in Catalonia is a war between the rich and the poor, because he invents this to attack certain things. 

What do you remember of October 1st?

In Aiguaviva we had organized a group lunch in the square and just as we were finishing we were told that several Civil Guard vans were approaching. We gathered in front of the polling station door and put our hands up, but they began to break through the barrier we had made by hitting us with their batons and spraying tear gas into our faces. They grabbed me, they made me fall to the ground and they beat me up, first with the batons horizontally, and then with the tips, as if they were pricking me. At that moment I didn't feel any pain. I do not know if that was because of the adrenaline or my bad mood... until a while later, once they had left, I began to notice that my whole body hurt. The next day I had the bruised foot, because one of the things they did was to step on us with their boots.But you managed to save the ballot box.I did not see it, because they took me by ambulance to hospital, where I was kept until 2 a.m. But I know that they entered and they took, as if it were a great treasure, a ballot box fill of empty envelopes. The real ballot box had been hidden. This must have really annoyed them, because they made fools of themselves. Like they were annoyed by the fact that President Puigdemont slipped past them as if he were James Bond, and managed to vote in another polling station while they sabotaged the one where he was supposed to vote, or the fact that on the day they saw that the ballot boxes and ballots were in place. 

Do you think that fear will slow the step forward that many citizens demand, to declare independence?

Honestly, I don't think so. There may be some fear of an economic crisis, but the fear of the civil guard, the batons, the aggression ... is no longer there. People have discovered that if you get beaten up while you are holding your arms up, you get a beating but those who hit you get ten, because everybody sees they are savages. I think that this peaceful attitude will continue. It is what makes us strong. What has become clear, because they have been told us, is that we are not Spanish. When people call "Go get 'em!" they are saying that we are "the others", that is, not them. Now 2.5 million Catalans or more no longer feel Spanish, and a part of the Catalan population that does feel Spanish is being replaced by generations that ae growing up and in which not everyone feels Spanish. 

Have you been surprised by the response of the students with the mobilizations in recent days? 

It is clear that we are where we are because young people have got really involved. Their organizational capacity, with the help of social networks, has been spectacular and has been a key to the success of the logistics of the referendum. With the students, exactly the same. With radicality, but with maturity, they have massively taken to the streets. I also want to emphasize the role of the CUP, which has shown that it is more mature than we thought. Anna Gabriel's last speech was one of the best to have been heard in Parliament. They also demonstrated maturity on the day the Spanish Police wanted to enter their headquarters and made a cordon to protect the policemen and avoid acts of violence. 

As a teacher, what do you think when schools are accused of indoctrinating the schoolchildren to hate Spain?

 If García Albiol wants to get the Spaniards to believe that we train children to hate Spain, it is because he want the Spaniards to hate us. When some Spaniards go out into the streets and shout "A por ellos!" ("Go get 'em!") Those that shout this aren't the people to blame. The culprits are García Albiol, Arrimadas, Rivera, Rajoy... They are those who force those people to hate us. One day they will have to be brought to account for this whipping-up of hatred.
 
 (translated by M. Strubell)