If the entry by the Civil Guard to the printing company in Constantí already had a touch of surrealism, that of this Saturday in the editorial of the weekly newspaper, El Vallenc of Valls, in search of evidence related to the referendum of 1st October, is a total democratic scandal. In the name of what democracy can situations such as that in Valls occur? It won't be long before the images of this Saturday end up embarrassing many democrats, who today maintain an inexplicable silence. The legitimate defence of the unity of Spain has many paths, but not one of them is being taken: first, the use of the sewers of the state [in reference to the TV documentary 'Spain's Secret Cesspit' about the 'Operation Catalonia'] to go directly against the main names of independentism; then, when that was not enough, to go directly against the assets of the organisers of the 9-N vote; later, to flood the Catalan government with criminal lawsuits, as well as the five members of the Board of the Catalan Parliament, its president included; and now, to go indiscriminately against individuals in order to spread fear among Catalan citizens.
If what happened in Valls does not concern, for example, Pablo Iglesias (leader of Podemos, 'We Can'), nor Pedro Sánchez (leader of PSOE), nor the hub of Podemos - except Íñigo Errejón (Secretary for Policy and Strategy of Podemos) - nor the great majority of Spanish intellectuals, it is not that Catalonia will celebrate the referendum, but rather Spain has a serious problem that will not be resolved whetever happens on 1st October. Perhaps, after repeating it so much, they have succumbed to their own discourse and have ended up believing that independentism seeks to make a coup d'état and not a referendum of self-determination. These things happen and one ends up losing the perspective between what it said and what is the reality. It happened to Albert Rivera (leader of Citizens) also this Saturday, who in public said that the Catalan government would not be able to dedicate even a euro on the referendum, and then on an open microphone picked up said that the Spanish government "would be screwed trying to prevent it".
Fear. This today is the main objective of the Spanish government. Among other things, because there is no need to pursue ballot papers for 1st October, since directly on the website of the Catalan government, where details of the referendum are given, any person can print off everything they want. If someone leaves home with a hundred ballot papers, what will they do? Will they stop them? Will they enter into the headquarters of the pro-independence parties or of the sovereign entities to confiscate ballot papers if they hear rumours about who printed them? Will they start to enter the town councils governed by seccessionists after the Diada (11th September, National Day of Catalonia)? Threatening citizens and volunteers achieves very little if nothing at all. We are in the 21st century, even if some want to resist recognising it. And the image of the demonstrators of Valls distributing carnations to the Civil Guard as they stood at the entrance to the weekly newspaper should make the Spanish state reflect. Above all, to avoid ridiculing its civil servants and placing them in the midst of a democratic scandal.