The decision of the Spanish government and the Public Prosecutor to extend the image of repression of the referendum of 1st October to the cities and towns of Catalonia, even ordering local police officers to act as judicial police, is giving rise to images that inevitably take us back to the years before the death of general Franco, or the first years of democracy. A Spain in black and white has risen from the ashes, as if in those forty long years it was unable to make the final leap to a recognised democracy, and now the seams are coming apart at the first hurdle. When it had to face a democratic claim by the Catalan society, that only asks to vote in a referendum of independence. And one where it is willing to agree on all things, be it the date or even the conditions.
Far from responding to this demand through democratic and political means, it has opted for the courts and the police. This past weekend there have been numerous acts on the street or in closed areas, where there have police interventions, removal of 'subversive' material, ranging from a ballot paper to a broom, a threatening presence in acts of support for the 1st October vote, withdrawing of banners and posters from dozens of towns, as well as several other acts. Political leaders who are in the kitchen of the referendum preparations say that the tracking of surveys they are carrying out and that, for now, have not been confiscated, show an increase in the mobilisation of voters by more than five points, and which exceeeds by a certain margin more than 50% of the census. We can only deduce that the fear campaign is producing a mobilisation of the independence movement, but at the same time an inclination of those who are neutral to go out and vote.
The action of the Spanish government is so disproportionate, that even over the weekend there have been two concentrations in Bilbao and Madrid that should make it reflect. The one in Bilbao was attended by several tens of thousands of people, because among its promoters there was the PNB (Basque Nationalist Party), besides the Abertzale left (other parties of Basque nationalist left). It is obvious that the repression by the state ends up leaving Basque nationalism and its voters in an uncomfortable position. The case of Madrid is different, but the act on Sunday exceeded expectations, and saw a packed theatre and hundreds of people in the street singing L'estaca by Lluís Llach - something far removed from the manifesto of Spanish intellectuals of the PP and PSOE, calling the 1st October vote an anti-democratic scam, and asking Catalans not to vote. By the way, a manifesto published as an advertisement in a large newspaper from Madrid.
Another manifesto, released on Sunday, has to do with more than 1,300 Catalan scientists in universities and research centres around the world, in which they announce their will to vote, and to vote 'yes' in order to place Catalonia alongside the most advanced nations, in science and technology. Besides denouncing the repression of the state. What is worrying is that those of 'yes' are not confronted with those of 'no', but their opponents are those who simply just don't want them to vote. Those that prefer a Spain in black and white.