Seeing the partisan reality of the Catalan independence movement today and its fragility as a space with a common political demand, it is difficult to understand how it was possible to carry out that independence referendum on October 1st 2017, the civic mobilization on October 3rd in the face of the police repression and the forceful political response of those weeks by a deep state that made authoritarianism its only rallying point. But it happened. It was not a dream or a mirage. It was the most significant mobilization against an authoritarian state whose deficiencies were brought out into the open that day before the eyes of the whole world. We all remember things from that historic day which the public has never renounced and which Catalan society in its great majority keeps on reclaiming. Catalan independence was badly wounded in that unequal battle because it had no answer to the violence of the State, which was first carried out as indiscriminate repression and then, in a selective way, the steamrolling of Catalan self-government, the prosecution of the political and social leaders and the use of terror as the only negotiating method.
It has been seen again with the disqualification from office of president Quim Torra by the Supreme Court for having displayed a banner calling for the release of political prisoners. He is the third consecutive Catalan president to suffer retaliations during the independence process and it is a way of sending an unequivocal message: the state is willing to ruin your life if you do not stay on the straight and narrow of an autonomous government, politically and financially trimmed. The three years that have elapsed since the referendum of October 2017 already allow us to have a certain perspective on both the successes achieved and the mistakes made. With hindsight - I’ve said it more than once and I won’t tire of repeating it - I don't share the pessimism and exaggerated self-flagellation I’ve seen or noticed many times. It's very typical of Catalans not to zoom out to the wide angle and get the full picture of the situation, one that lets you know your real situation and that of your opponent.
It is clear that independence has its divisions, its problems and its need to base strategies on broad agreements to keep moving forward. But the Spanish state has collapsed, with a head of state aligned with the right and in contention with the government, a justice system which has taken upon itself a power that is unheard of in democratic regimes, a king emeritus who has fled abroad amidst corruption cases, a territorial crisis with Catalonia wanting to leave Spain, a monarchy versus republic debate open, to which must be added the terrible management of the Covid-19 crisis and the accompanying economic crisis that leaves Spain as the country with the largest projected fall in GDP across 2020 and 2021. There are reasons, therefore, not to give up the battle as lost, and to continue to believe that an independent Catalonia is not a misguided project despite the official narrative imposed by the media in Madrid and submissively accepted even if some local newspapers assert the opposite. The game is not over, no matter how many times people have assumed it that it is finished. Barring a political earthquake, pro-independence parties will again win a the majority in Parliament, they will surpass the results of 2017 and are likely to get 50% of the vote for the first time. Something that would be a milestone and would give a very important boost to the movement.
We at El Nacional.cat want to be the voice of this ample majority of Catalan society which struggles not to be silenced, which does not give up in the face of difficulties and which trusts in the vitality of the country, which bends like a stem of grass but always recovers its verticality again. We said this when we set out in March 2016: the crisis of the printed press had been glimpsed; now it has become gigantic and has left the media once considered a reference at the mercy of the needs of large companies and administrations. That's why information is more at risk today than ever before. A year ago, we started the El Nacional club with the triple goal of deepening the relationship with our readers, strengthening their level of membership and support for the journalism we practice and creating a community of supporters of the newspaper and its editorial line. A year later we continue to need, more than ever, a more and more numerous family for El Nacional which is willing to express its support by joining the Club El Nacional. Because this is the only way to ensure the independence of the newspaper in the face of the tsunami in the advertising sector and the falling revenue that is occurring.