With the discretion and the mettle that always accompanies his words, the president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, accompanied by representatives of six decades of struggle for the self-determination of Catalonia, made a call to the pro-independence parties on Sunday not to waste the historical election result of 14th February (51.7% of votes in favour of pro-independence candidacies). He urged them to assume responsibility and act with the ambition of a state. In other words, to get to work without further ado.
Cuixart's words, with an unjust sentence from the Supreme Court of nine years' imprisonment having over them, come in a week which may be decisive in revealing where the negotiations for the new Catalan government are headed. This week we should begin to know if the "broad route" of ERC (Republican Left) can really be opened - from Junts (Together for Catalonia) to the CUP (Popular Unity) with the Comuns (En Comú Podem) as well, a formula that the last two have ruled out; if, on the contrary, it opts for a purely pro-independence government; or if it will explore alternative agreements with the Comuns as its sole partner in government.
All this in the middle of a week of tension in the streets with police action by the Mossos d'Esquadra that has given scenes of disproportion and negligence with regard to the protesters. The intolerable images of looting in some shops in the centre of Barcelona should not serve as a justification for the reprehensible actions of the Mossos that we have seen and that deserve a little more than a generic reflection on the law and order model to be followed.
Nor is it acceptable for police unions to challenge political power as a representatives of popular sovereignty. Like it or not, it should be the politicians who set the guidelines for the Mossos and not the Mossos who set the guidelines for the politicians. Trying to delimit the problem to law and order is more typical of past eras than the present day and we must not lose sight of the fact that the precipitant of the protests is freedom of expression, and the arrest and imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasél.
It is no less striking how, sequence by sequence, we are seeing a repetition of the movements that were experienced in Catalonia after the municipal elections two years ago, which led to the re-appointment of Ada Colau as mayor with the votes of Manuel Valls. Then, the victim was ERC. Although Ernest Maragall had won the election, sectors of the city's establishment did all they could and even more to prevent from governing. Which they now regret daily.
This same influential sector has been on the move since election night and one only had to glance at the headline of an article by Manel Pérez this Sunday in La Vanguardia to have confirmation of several days of rumours: big business is asking ERC to reach a government pact with the PSC (Catalan Socialists) and the Comuns. The goal, which is also shared by the Spanish government, is very clear: to prevent a pro-independence government. Cuixart is already right: responsibility and a principled vision.