It's been some time since Ciudadanos decided that the best method for it to profit from the Catalan independence process has two strands: the exaggeration of the societal division from the polarisation produced by such a debate and the invention that the Catalan independence movement is violent.
It's not managed to get either of its two arguments to stick in Catalonia. Especially not the second one. But the means it's employed to do so have been significant. Including exaggeration and lies. It's well-enough documented that the violence in Catalonia has only come from the unionist side and that since 1st October last year it's been carried out exponentially with dangerous impunity by certain members of the state's security forces.
In the whirlwind of exaggerated or false news stories this Saturday, there has been a qualitative jump by Ciudadanos' leadership in spreading news of an attack on a woman in Barcelona's Ciutadella park, giving it political value and linking it to removing yellow loops. The fact that initially Rivera and Arrimadas believed that the story was true could be due to a mistake. But when, 24 hours later, they haven't issued a correction on social media, it's not a mistake. It's a premeditated wish to propagate an erroneous version of reality. Then along comes the Spanish media which feeds on this lie.
It's not strange that this obscene attitude towards reality should then come a cropper against leaks which aren't Spanish. And that there should be such an uproar over Llarena's summons to Brussels for 4th September.
Not everything is worth it for a handful of votes.