I'm sorry to say it with these words: enough of making a fool. It cannot be possible that during a full terrorist alert of level 4 — that on Tuesday night provoked a situation of panic among the neighbours of the Sagrada Familia, that afterwards turned out to be false alarm, but which obliged an extensive area of the Eixample to be cordoned off for over an hour — and when it is still not a month since the attacks that caused 16 deaths in Barcelona and Cambrils, that the orders given to the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have been to search for ballot boxes across Catalonia to prevent the referendum of 1st October.
The failure of the politics and the inaction of the Spanish government, relying instead on the courts, is leading to an authentic monstrosity for Brand Spain, and which already violates citizens' basic rights. From the prohibition by a Madrid judge of the celebration of an event about the referendum in the capital, already authorised by the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmona, to the communication received by the directors of TV3 (Catalan public broadcaster) and of Catalunya Ràdio, in which they are told to "refrain from initiating, processing, informing and/or dictating within the scope of their respective competencies any action that allows the preparation and/or celebration of the referendum".
The success of the Mossos in August taking down a cell of twelve terrorists within 72 hours, with seven shot dead and five under arrest, has since brought a sense of sympathy between the citizens and the Catalan police. The Mossos scored a huge police success, even though there are some quite loose gaps that have yet to be clarified and can be condensed in two: a political one, and one of the Spanish security services. Firstly: can it continue being defended that the Catalan police should not be in Europol, a situation that is only a consequence of the stubborness of the Ministry of the Interior? Secondly: one day will they explain to us why the file of the imam of Ripoll was so extensive for the Spanish police and Spain's secret services (CNI), yet so scarce for the Catalan police?
The fact that there is a consensus to preserve an area of common interest between both governments in the fight against jihadist terrorism cannot serve to cover spurious interests. And sincerely, it is not acceptable that, whilst the Catalan Interior minister, Joaquim Forn, is informing the Catalan government during his weekly Tuesday meeting that there is an urgent terrorist alert in southern Europe concentrated in France and Rome; that strict controls are being implemented at the request of Paris in the conurbation of Barcelona and that the mayor of Barcelona has been informed - that those with maximum responsibility for the Mossos, the Civil Guard and the National Police are meeting with the Public Prosecutor's Office to address how to impose a repression of the referendum. Outrageous.
From the first day I have argued that politics has had enough time to respond to the request of an agreed referendum in Catalonia. They have buried their heads in the sand, and the inconsistency of the Spanish politicians has allowed the situation to rot. No proposal in five years. Of course, a written press partly indoctrinated and partly bullying, has not stopped talking about a coup d'état, a coup to democracy, and other generalisations for internal consumption. In the meantime, the Financial Times, Le Monde and The Guardian, to quote three relevant examples in the global news world, have intervened in the last hours of the conflict with practically identical ideas, pressurising the executive of Mariano Rajoy (Spanish prime minister) to move. To agree on a referendum.
A final request: do not play with our security and let's leave the Mossos, as the only integral police force deployed across the whole of Catalonia, to continue doing the work they do so well.