It has not been done by the European governments, or the Commission, from where it has only seeped up until now, but it is being done by its main media groups. Being sensitive to the demands of independence that are proposed by Catalonia or damaging to the position of the government. The intransigence of Rajoy, his absolute refusal to any negotiation, the repressive measures of the Spanish government by jumping its own legal framework, the disproportionate action of its security forces, the de facto suspension of Catalan autonomy, the confiscation of its budgets and the blocking of its current accounts, in short, the de facto state of exception with losses of fundamental rights of the citizens has turned matters against the Spanish executive with a speed of vertigo.
The Catalan subject has come as a whirlwind onto the European agenda when there are only 9 days until the 1st October referendum. Up to a dozen questions had to be answered by the spokesperson of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, in his regular appearance in front of the media accredited in Brussels. It was the only one that followed the official script that Juncker assured last week, in a web conversation, that the EU would respect the outcome of the referendum. Undoubtedly, the great news is the media treatment that German newspapers are giving to the demands of Catalonia. Both Die Welt and Süddeutsche Zeitung, very influential media, did it on Thursday with their opening reports. Above even the German elections of this Sunday in which Chancellor Merkel, with everything in her favour, contests re-election to the post that she has occupied since 2005. The first asked for Europe to intervene in the conflict between Catalonia and Spain and reproached Rajoy for speaking to the Catalans as if it was North Korea. The second also advocated for the intervention of the EU.
What is this German concern due to? The only explanation has to do with the increasingly widespread impression in Europe that the Spanish government has lost control of the situation and that only repression remains, a medicine that is difficult to swallow outside of Madrid. The Spanish position with Catalonia is starting to be perceived as a problem for European stability.
If we go to Italy, the examples are no less alarming. The two main newspapers, La Repubblica and the Corriere della Sera call it the "Catalan War" and "Madrid punishes Catalonia", respectively. The Times in the United Kingdom asserts that the referendum should be allowed and Libération stresses, in France, that the strategy of Madrid is politically destructive. A last example, also of Thursday: the influential weekly Politico asks if the Spanish prime minister has any plan and questions about the possibility of him being labelled like a dictator.
This international media menu reflects the realpolitik, but this has already been known since the beginning. It is such, that the questions asked by prestigious international media from so many countries are not even asked by the leading local newspapers, clearly hostile to the Catalan institutions. It is also the realpolitik, in this case Spanish.
At this moment, focused on the international front, the battle is played between the repression by the Spanish state and the resistance of independence. If the latter maintains its capacity demonstrated to date, the repression, however hard it is, and it will be even more, will be just skin deep for the movement. The pro-referendum space has grown in Catalonia and has spread in Spain. Puigdemont is moving on a tightrope but it shouldn't be discarded that the one who falls is Rajoy. Today, the bets are that the first bumps off the second.