Rarely does politics come as close to tightrope walking as on Thursday 26th October 2017. Like a professional acrobat jumping from wire to wire in search of a solution, in order that article 155 of the Constitution might not be applied to - well, let's not deceive ourselves, let's say it clear, to suspend the autonomy - the president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, put on the table a change of plan: the call for elections in the Catalan Parliament for 20th December.
It was not an easy decision. Not comfortable. Nor unanimous in the PDeCAT (Catalan European Democratic Party). Not shared by Esquerra Republicana (Republican Left). Not even by the great majority of the deputies of Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) - two of them, Albert Batalla and Jordi Cuminal, of the PDeCAT, even announced their resignations for what they understood was an incomprehensible withdrawal. Not even for the Catalan government as a whole. Not even for the sovereign entities, ANC and Omnium. Puigdemont knew perfectly well that he was risking a virulent reaction from diverse sectors of pro-independence. Alone and probably tired, but also convinced that it was the best for the independence movement, not putting everything at risk, he took the step.
Puigdemont left the meeting of the government, that started at 10am, for a telephone call. It was probably when they spoke about some minimum guarantees if their proposal would be accepted. With this conviction, he met the 62 deputies of Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes), communicated to them the step that he was going to take, and asked them to understand it. Some left crying, others irritated. None of them happy. And he sat to wait for the positive confirmation of his offer and the subsequent appearance in the face of the press at 1.30pm.
The answer arrived immediately in the form of a slap: there would be no withdrawal from article 155 and you are free to do whatever you want. There was no pact. Much worse than that: at La Moncloa, the offer was understood as a surrender; it could take out more benefit. Puigdemont considered the news and disassembled his strategy. He returned to the plan of the declaration of independence and that it would be the Spanish state who chose the degree of repression that it intended to use.
Gone were the discussions and misunderstandings in the Catalan government to put an end immediately to the possible repression so that independence might not have to face the draconian measures of the suppression of the autonomy. There was also the inability of the state to accept a proposal that wouldn't above all else reduce Catalanism to ashes, today transmitted to independence.
In normal conditions, one might say that we have lived the last movement before the declaration of independence this Friday morning in Parliament. But if anything has been seen up to now, it is that the script can always change in the last minute, although nobody bets that this time the same happens again.