Visca Espanya!

Dearly beloved Indepes, the time has come to face the truth. Nobody wants your revolution. Nobody wants your new republic. Come Monday, Mariano Rajoy and his henchmen will be riding into town. The outside partners, EU, lehendakari and world opinion, may be able to somewhat cool the avenging fever, but anywhere near pleasant it all can’t be. We are set to lose everything we have built, not just our beautiful little republic, but our unique society as well. We need to stop that. Dancing in the street won’t do it, I’m afraid.

Indepes, have a good look at yourselves. Take a good look at your history, as well. How often have we been reminded of 1714 the last couple years? And of 1939? Catalunya’s famous defeats always justified the desire to get it right this time. But why did you lose? Simply put, because the other side was stronger and there was nobody to come to your rescue. Sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it? You don’t want to lose. Losing isn’t nice, as your grandparents knew. So how are we going to save ourselves?

I believe we have a lot to save. We have a well-functioning, mostly relaxed and friendly society. You have your own language and your own ideas. If we give PPC’s the chance to destroy our land with financial strangulation of our institutions, dismissals of functionaries and horrible replacements (Albiol, anyone?), we will be in the dark for another fifty years. Indepes, you cannot afford to lose this one. We need to win.

I believe there is only one way out of this three centuries old problem. Or was it five centuries? Catalunya will have to find its encaje in Spain. It will have to give up its desire for independence. It needs to commit itself once again to Spain, like it did in 1978, but this time with an iron guarantee that Mr Rajoy’s dirty game with our feelings and our money will not bear fruit and can never happen again. This shall be our offer: consent for peace. Real peace. Our peace. Catalunya will forever be Catalunya but shall not seek its future outside Spain, while Spain finally starts respecting our existence.

I am quite sure the majority of well-minded Spaniards would go with this solution. We just don’t get to hear them, over here, as the growls and hisses coming from the pack are way too loud. I am also convinced that the few hours we have left should be enough to let our outside partners broker a deal. But most of all, it seems to me inevitable that Catalunya reaches out first. We can’t trust the bloodhounds to treat us nicely once they are upon us. It’s high time we buried the hatchet and ask Europe to help us. Though Madrid will feel frustrated to see her bounty escape in the last instant, the Union can’t really deny us our right to a settlement. Shouldn’t our lehendakari have a word with Donald Tusk?

I was going to put up this text, then decided to bring some copies to my appointment in town and see if I could find some indepes. Not many shared my mood. People seemed quite optimistic about the affair. We're not going to give this back, they say. They follow the cue of the press, which are fully echoing the happy go lucky mood. La Vanguardia not, of course, though they maintain some sort of neutral dislike for Rajoy's plans. If the idea is to take it to the end and accept the consequences of such a bold move which can only end bad in the short run and perhaps disastrous in the long one, then my words are of no avail. Perhaps they come in handy around election time. Because how will they avoid everybody voting ERC? Are they going to prohibit all independence parties from participating? Will this be the great international debate we are going to be submitted to for two long months? Ay, madre. I will take this series into the coming week, but I may take it easier at some point, as the news will just be some result of what has already been analysed by all and everyone. What we see is what we get. So I thought I present you with a short run of my adventures here, to show my appreciation for this town where I've been very much at home for a good twelve years now. It will likely be for tomorrow, as I may go seeing some hard-rock tonight. Shake off the feelings.