Silence. That's the main characteristic of the noble area of the Palau de la Generalitat, the Catalan government palace, now that it's been twenty-five days since president Carles Puigdemont left for Brussels. There has been no activity at all in what has been, since the restoration of the Catalan government in October 1977, the nerve centre of political power in Catalonia. No important visits are received and the Casa dels Canonges, the president's official residence, remains shut tight. Although the great majority of palace staff remain in their posts, as Mariano Rajoy's government has only dismissed certain senior officials, it's true that it seems that the Administration has been anaesthetised.
No decisions can be taken, everything needs to be confirmed by the respective ministries and papers go from one place to another to avoid keeping contracted commitments. Puigdemont's office is just as it was on the last day he was there, that Friday, 27th October, when the Parliament proclaimed the Republic. A single secretary is all that remains in that area of frenetic activity of the Puigdemont presidency. Nobody is discretely slipping in through the various side entrances, like the one in carrer del Bisbe, because there's nobody they might need to meet without arousing suspicions. Catalan political power has had to get used to living in the exceptional circumstances implied by the kidnapping of its institutions and the expulsion of its legitimate representatives chosen at the ballot box and voted on by the Parliament of Catalonia.
It's the same story at the Economy ministry and Oriol Junqueras's headquarters of as vice-president and in each and every one of the government departments. Nothing is normal in a Catalonia which has had over half its government in prison since 2nd November, and which had already seen Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart sent to Soto del Real, now heading for 40 days deprived of their liberty. And ERC (Catalan Republic Left) is presenting its candidate lists for the 21st December election without knowing when its leader will leave Estremera prison and the Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) list will be presented in Brussels where its leader, Puigdemont, is in exile.
It's a curious normality maintained in imposed exceptional circumstances. In which no one talks about the Ripoll imam, the "mastermind" of the terrorist attacks in August and in which the Official State Gazette literally translates the names of Catalan counties to Spanish. So Garrotxa, Maresme and Noguera become Breña, Marisma and Nogal. A technical error... of the type that never happens. Article 155 and 'Spanishisation'. Nonsense as a political weapon. How happy former minister Wert must be from his little palace in Paris. Spanishisation might not have reached Catalan schools but automatic translators can end up changing the names of squares, streets, towns and counties. Nobody should be surprised from now on.