The new day of "countrywide standstill" has shown one thing above all else: that the protest in Catalonia is still alive and that the state's repression isn't going to return the normality that Madrid so craves. Those who opposed the standstill can take refuge in a few statistics which undervalue the result. But they'll be wrong. The protest was a triumph in the two things it was aiming for: to keep the rejection of the institutional repression that has dismantled the Catalan government alive in the streets and to make it evident to the international community that dialogue is still needed and that the legal path isn't the solution to the Catalan problem.
Two basic services for the normal functioning of a society are transport and education, from nurseries to universities, and both suffered serious effects during the whole day. The large-scale gatherings held in the morning and afternoon in hundreds of towns and cities around Catalonia showed that we're not seeing a fleeting protest, but that it will last until president Carles Puigdemont and the four ministers with him can return freely from Brussels, until vice-president Oriol Junqueras and the seven ministers with him leave prison, and until the two Jordis, Sànchez and Cuixart, are also released. The protests likewise demand that article 155 of the Spanish Constitution is revoked so that Catalonia can normally and fully recover its institutions.
The weeks that have passed since the start of the state's repression and its evolution in Catalonia seriously worry people in Madrid, who had made a different analysis, in others words, a wrong one, of what the result would be. So much so that the first signs of worries are starting to come from the Spanish government itself, which is trying to gain some distance from the Attorney General's decision to imprison over half the Catalan government. The euphoria of the first moments in the Moncloa government palace, in PP (Popular Party), PSOE (Spanish Socalist Workers' Party) and Cs (Citizens) seems to have cooled, except for Albert Rivera, and it's already being considered in the legal media that the case should move from judge Carmen Lamela at the National Audience court to the Supreme Court.
Did this have to take so long? That the National Audience isn't competent for this case is common knowledge and that no crime of rebellion has been committed is obvious for the majority of legal experts who have given their opinion. But this is about teaching the independence movement a lesson and nothing else. Now what is happening is that the image of Spain has gone up in smoke and the Catalan response is coming on too many fronts to be easily blocked.
One of the rebukes that, at some time during this process, was thrown at independence supporters is that "Catalans do things". Yes, correct. And another fact, demonstrated throughout the years of peaceful, large-scale demonstrations, is that they're very persistent. At this stage, Mariano Rajoy's government should have taken good note of both.