The day Puigdemont gets tossed in prison

Have you noticed how anxious they are? Have you seen how willing they are to make fools of themselves? Do you realise that their attitude is proof of their failure? The show by the Barcelona prosecutor,  Josep Piqué’s outbursts, the prosecutor’s political statement and final justifications in the trial on the 9 November poll. I do not need to add any more. Every day there are new examples. The fact is that they are very nervous. They were convinced the whole thing was a kind of invention to scrounge more powers. But now they realize that everyone here is committed and that we are steaming ahead. And now they’re shitting in their pants.

It can’t be easy, if we get inside the mind of one of these colonizers, to absorb the idea that those inferior beings have decided that the show is over. Those boring yet amusing creatures who had dominated for ages, that they had been taught to regard as their property … Remember the way we used to be treated by many of these colonial agents, who  now moan as if they were victims, and make fools of themselves? Remember that patronizing way they spoke to us! How condescending they were! It can’t be easy to digest this change.

Leaving aside their mood, we need to worry about how they can react. I have said more than once that a wounded animal is the most dangerous one. In any case, now the hurdle of the budget has been overcome, the remaining steps to independence are very clear. The disconnection bills have to be put to Parliament, they have to be adopted, the referendum has to be called, and if after the campaign the Yes vote wins,  independence will be proclaimed. But beware: at that moment a new obstacle race will start. But independence will have been proclaimed, and there will be no turning back.

These remaining steps before proclaiming independence seem easy on paper, but are the most tricky and risky moments of all the path covered hitherto. And the most important thing now will be to manage the calendar. This is the most powerful weapon that politics has. Whoever controls the time or if you like, the calendar, has the upper hand. And Spain will do all it can to disrupt whatever plans the pro-independence majority may have. In this regard, before taking any decision one question needs to be answered: are we doing this of our own free will, or because the state leaves us no other option?

My impression – though I am not prone to make predictions – is rhat the trials that are now underway are just a foretaste. The moment of truth will not take long to arrive. I do not think we will have to wait until June to see president Puigdemont before the courts. Are we willing to see Puigdemont behind bars? Spain for months has been weaving a speech to be used to justify strong repression in Catalonia. Lacking arguments and project even have a way-the only way that have really busy during the centuries: the repression. This is their natural language. A language they have only sophisticated a bit when they have wanted to enter clubs like the EU.

I have no idea whether the referendum will be called before or after the summer. Nor do I know if it will be possible to call it or if conditions will allow a complete vote. My feeling is that they think that fear is the only way. And not the fear of losing pensions or of wandering for centuries through outer space. I mean a real and specific threat. Imprisonment and physical impairment. I am not saying this to scare anyone. I say this so that we can get ready and know how to respond worthily to the siege of democracy that our country may have to live through in the months ahead. If we can withstand the onslaught we will have won.