The greatest lie by the Spanish state in years has been smashed to pieces by the German courts in the blink of an eye. The higher regional court of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein has needed less than 48 hours to say the obvious: there has been no act of rebellion in Catalonia as there has been no violence, and the crime imagined by judge Pablo Llarena has fallen from the European Arrest Warrant against president Carles Puigdemont. The greatest lie in the Spanish media, the narrative told to the Spains, was false. In Catalonia there hasn't been a coup d'état, nor anything close to one. The greatest lie of the Spanish political class from PP to PSOE, obviously including Ciudadanos for a handful of votes, has been taken apart by three German judges. The fairy tale of politicians and low-class preachers has come to an end and the general criminal case against the independence movement has ended up in serious doubt in three vertiginous hours of news to which has been added the deafening silence of the Spanish state, which has received something more than a knock.
The German justice system has decreed the release of president Carles Puigdemont. Belgian justice has decreed the release of ministers Antoni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig. British justice released minister Clara Ponsatí on 28th March. Swiss justice has left Marta Rovira free and not summonsed her to testify. Never had a house of cards with each lie held up by another collapsed in so few hours. The Spanish silence is normal. And the embarrassment of its representatives, who have hastened Spain towards one of the darkest chapters in its history, is normal.
This Friday there'll be something else, that's certain. But this Thursday has been historical and, if there had been the least political intelligence, the correct path would have been to try to redirect the most complete discredit which the Spanish institutions have been subjected to in the belief that European justice would diligently sign off at the bottom of a story which doesn't stand up anywhere. To humbly accept the lesson in democratic values and the independence of justice from four such different countries would be the most intelligent path. And the immediate release of the members of the Catalan government and the leaders of the pro-independence organisations subjected to pretrial detention which is now revealed as more unjust than ever.
President Carles Puigdemont has obtained a very important legal and political victory based on persistence, confidence and security. A man pulling a suitcase, travelling through Europe, as the Spanish state has enjoyed caricaturing him, has brought down Goliath. Not for good, obviously. Battles are always long. But Carles Puigdemont is again, without any argument, the epicentre of the independence movement and its main asset. Enough petty partisan arguments.