"The problem of December 21st is not the independence movement", V. Partal

Vicent Partal (VilaWeb) reminds readers that the only violence to date has been by the Spaniush authorities, and asks them not to be fooled by fears of violence on the pro-independence side. The English translation is by M.S.

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Original text: https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/el-problema-del-21-d-no-es-lindependentisme-editorial-vicent-partal/

The editorial
Vicent Partal

The problem about December 21st is not the independence movement

"I am observing with some surprise the tension and fear of part of the independence movement as regards of the calls on December 21st"

On December 21st last year the election imposed by the Spanish government through the article 155 coup d'etat were held. A year ago citizens gave Junts per Catalu ya (Together for Catalonia), ERC and CUP a comfortable victory, with the clear message that it was necessary to reject the attack against Catalonia's institutions and restore the legitimate government. A year after that election, the Spanish government has decided that it will come in Barcelona to hold a meeting of the Cabinet. Pedro Sanchez could have chosen any other day of the year - there are 364 others - but decided that that was to be the day. I don't know if he didn't realise or wasn't aware of the connotations of that choice, but they are self-evident. One likely and quite reasonable interpretation is: 'OK, you won the elections, but we are still in charge'. So it is a provocation. 

It is, moreover, a provocation that comes in a very clear context. Pedro Sanchez's speech in the Spanish Congress this week is more characteristic of the wildest extreme right wing. He said very grave things, that are untrue, and he knows they are untrue. He insulted most of the Catalan population with arguments that simply defy common sense and are shot down by the facts that the citizens live every day. He even built into his speech leaks to friendly media that can be described in many ways, but not as being sensible. They all go in the direction of exceptional measures against Catalonia and against democratic freedoms. Such measures have no real justification. People cannot be fooled with such primitive exaggerations. Now they have decided, for example, that the Mossos will be put under their orders for not having acted on Sunday against the CDRs [Committees for the Defence of the Republic]. But not even all their propaganda can hide that on Sunday the Mossos followed word for word the same protocols that were used during the application of article 155 [of the Spanish Constitution]. I can understand their wanting to deceive us. But I think we have very little faith in the millions of Catalans who have proved they deserve the country's political confidence, if we think their trick will work.

In case anyone has forgotten, the government that is holding in pre-trial detention the Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia, the Vice-President of the Generalitat, two leaders of civil society and ministers - who have done nothing to find themselves in this situation, who have not committed any crime - will come to hold a Cabinet meeting in Barcelona on the 21st. The very government that forced in exile the President of the Generalitat and several ministers, the Secretary General of ERC and a leader of the CUP, although European four jurisdictions have said that there is no case. And one of these four jurisdictions is none other than Germany which, on studying the case thoroughly, said in the highest court in the country that all this talk about rebellion and sedition is a political invention to justify repression, that in this case is not applicable. The PSOE could have been resolved part of the problem that we have, at least by removing the use of provisional imprisonment, and undisputed exaggeration. But it has nothing. There are four prisoners and a mayor on hunger strike and it does nothing. There are more than a thousand defendants and it does anything. And it isn't just that. For the most serious thing is that when it had to come to the support of the Spanish right it did stir: it agreed the illegal application of article 155 with the People's Party . 

Having mae this review, I must say, and I am sorry to say it in this way, that I am wntessing with a some surprise the tension and fear of a part of the independence movement in relation to the 21 December calls. I have even been asked to condemn violence before there is any, that it is important to condemn violence before it happens. And on this I replied (how else could I do it?), that I shall condemn violence, clearly, if there is any. But I shall do so only if there is any and after analyzing carefully what has happened, what caused it and who carried it out. For to condemn a non-existent violence means to legitimate the story invented by the violent, which are them, and give credit to the lies and the manipulations of the violent, which are them; in short, to help them to win, the violent people that hit us on the first of October, to the violent who are keeping our leaders in prison and in exile, to the violent who from the stalls of the Spanish Congress lie and manipulate. 

And it is quite true that Rivera and a few others already speak about deaths and will try to make the best of the occasion to cause serious incidents. That's the way it is. So well-designed measures are needed to prevent the action of hired provocators. Everyone must be altert and more the anyone else the CDRs. Of course. On this point we are in agreement and I have nothing to discuss. I also agree, absolutely, that another peaceful, huge, imaginative, festive and striking mobilization would be desirable. Yet another one. But this is not just up to us, or even mainly up to us. And we had better know this and start to demand explanations from those truly responsible. 

Let us be serious: it was a fluke that there were no deaths on October 1st, though we can't ignore that some of blows dealt out by the Spanish police and the civil guards could have caused some. I shall not therefore be taken in by their manipulations, or forget that all the demonstrations for independence for the past eight years have been peaceful and that the guys of the truncheons, the cutters, the balaclavas and the rubber balls are them.