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The polls which will be held in the coming days at a total of 26 Spanish universities for students to vote whether they're in favour of the monarchy as a form of government or if they support a republic, and which started this Thursday at the Autonomous University of Madrid, are nothing more than the reflection of the questioning of the crown and its unstoppable decline. Catalonia is no longer the only place where the monarchy is widely and massively rejected, as it has been since Felipe VI's speech on 3rd October 2017, rather bit by bit a critical sentiment is catching on in wide areas of Spain, from the Basque Country to Navarre, and on the Balearic Islands and in Asturias, to cite four other autonomous communities where, to differing extents, there has been some kind of protest or other.

The movement which is now starting in the world of universities, which four Catalan public universities will also take part in, as well as having a very large census of possible voters (900,000 in total) is looking to crack open the debate over Spain's form of government. Only those who scorn the power of the grassroots in such processes should play down their importance. The similarity with the referendums in Catalan municipalities on independence, which started in Arenys de Munt, is clear. When, in September 2009, the poll was held in that municipality in Maresme county the trend was to disregard what had happened, but it would end up being the embryo for many civil and political claims. Time had to pass for the importance to be seen of that movement which grew at enormous speed to place independence as a central question in Catalan politics.

At the Autonomous University of Madrid, with something under 30,000 students, the most optimistic calculations place its turnout at around 10,000 people. We'll see what the final results are, but by midday, many more people had already voted than, for example, in the election for the university's rector, something which, in theory, should interest the students. It's also going to be interesting to compare the different universities by geographical location. In any case, the mechanism of the public vote on the institution of the monarchy has been ticking over for some time. The Spanish royal family's mistakes and the burden of corruption which no one wanted to investigate are weighing down on it, however much every time there is some headline the attempt is to bury in silence what is an immense outcry.

The effort by the Spanish prime minister to reign in the new Villarejo leaks among the usual suspects which allegedly hit the crown head on and which everyone is already talking about is, in the current world of communications, like trying to set up doors in a field. Pedro Sánchez can have regrets and ask for help but beyond Villarejo's morals, controlling information is today almost impossible.