The demonstration held this Tuesday, starting at Pla de Palau and ending in Plaça de Sant Jaume, which the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) called against the government of Catalonia is the umpteenth manifestation of the division afflicting the Catalan independence movement, which far from approaching this with a will to find a consensus, is slipping into a sibling war whose solution will be very difficult. Pro-independence parties and organizations against other pro-independence parties and organizations, and political leaders fueling this rift with a high degree of irresponsibility. It has to be commented that this road does not lead anywhere but to the failure and diminution of the movement.
From the very first announcement, as the newspaper archives reflect, it has seemed to me that the reform of the Spanish Penal Code, with the abolition of the crime of sedition and the modification of the crime of aggravated public disorder, is dangerous and deceptive. Dangerous because even if the will of the legislator is to eliminate a crime that dates back to 1822 and has remained the same in every subsequent amendment to the Penal Code, the truth is that the wording of the proposal presented by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, with the endorsement by the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), and the Basque parties PNV and Bildu, may lead to the criminalization of protest, as many legal experts have pointed out. And deceptive because it is hard to think that the goal of Pedro Sánchez's government is not to bring Catalan president Carles Puigdemont back to Spanish territory with the sedition amendment, when Socialist politicians go round saying so day after day.
But to go from that point to demanding - even while the Congress of Deputies is processing the law change and still awaits the presentation of amendments - the resignation of Catalan president Pere Aragonès and his government is a big step. It is the distance between the responsibility of asking all pro-independence players to search for areas of consensus, and the irresponsible escalation towards a definitive falling out that would certify the movement's inability to manage its successful election result of February 2021, perhaps one that will not be repeatable for a long time. The departure of Together for Catalonia (Junts) from the government has had consequences, as was predictable. And, for now, none of them are satisfactory: their political project has not gained strength and it seems that where they are most comfortable when protesting in the street - a path that, until now, has been almost exclusive to the CUP.
To go from being part of a coalition government with ERC to demonstrating against it in just eight weeks is hardly credible, even if none of the ministers who were part of the government were in Plaça Sant Jaume on Tuesday. The fact that the demonstrators filled that square with several thousand people - more than 10,000 according to the organizers and 4,600 according to the Guardia Urbana - is a reflection that discontent exists. The same goes for the fact that more than 60 associations and bodies supported the demonstration. But others, such as Òmnium Cultural, which is against the modification of the offence of public disorder, did not.
ERC and Junts must not continue with this Cainite drift that will undoubtedly have consequences in the municipal election pacts. It's only a matter of time. Less than six months.