It is difficult to find a descriptive term, one that is sufficiently precise and also suitable for publication, to describe the level of cynicism shown by the Spanish prime minister in claiming that the responsibility for the repression being suffered by the Catalan independence movement lies with its own leaders. It's not ridiculous, he claims, that a Catalan president can be disqualified by the Supreme Court for hanging a banner, but rather it's just what he was looking for. It's not a legal aberration that the sentences given to the jailed members of the Catalan Government and pro-independence groups for the October 1st referendum were so high, it's what they were seeking. It's not worth getting into the attitude of the Spanish prosecution service, first with the PP and now with the PSOE, because it always acts with great professionalism - forgetting those words of Sánchez that will always haunt him, when he wanted to give a knowing wink to pro-independence voters during the campaign and he asserted that he had control over the prosecutors, since their senior figure is appointed directly by the cabinet.
And so we could go on, because from the mouth of Pedro Sanchez, comfortable on one of his favourite platforms, La Sexta, no self-criticism emerges, but rather a single message: Catalan independence must turn the page and accept the rules of the game, which will not be modified. The law as it is being applied is here to stay, and the court cases will continue as long as there is no change of attitude. Of course, he formally stretched out his hand to dialogue and to a rectification by the independence movement in order to start what he defines as a re-encounter and which surely has many other names that do not resemble such a thing. The goal, ever since Sánchez arrived at the Moncloa palace, has always been the same: for the PSOE leader, while occupying the centre of the playing field, to preach what he does not practice, meanwhile the pro-independence parties don't know how to play the game as they spend more time thinking about cancelling each other out than to preparing the clash with the state which they say they want to carry out.
Sunday marked the third anniversary of the incidents of September 20th, 2017, a key date in triggering the events of October and the first action in which it was possible to see that Spain would give no quarter in its pursuit of police and judicial repression. The entrance to the Catalan economy ministry was where the face-off materialised, and as a result of the impressive popular response which took place in front of the ministerial offices of Rambla de Catalunya, a few weeks later, the two Jordis would enter prison, to be subsequently sentenced to nine years' jail for sedition which they are currently serving.
That must also be their fault, according to Pedro Sánchez, who does not care that numerous organizations, such as Amnesty International and a UN Working Group, have called for their immediate release due to the violation of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. The Spanish PM's victim-blaming is an old strategy and an irresponsible one too, but it does make it clear that the truth has long since ceased to interest him.