The kaleidoscope of these days does not show, and it is normal, a unique look at the reality of things. What began as a square or a pentagon at the most, has been converted, at least, with the passing days, in an icosahedron, the twenty-faced polyhedron. That is why the looks end up being very different throughout the day if one doesn't maintain a dogmatic and immobile approach. One can feel brave and cowardly during the day and have a strange feeling, that some can overcome quickly when they feel part of this broad command of dignity that went to vote under exceptional conditions, and knowing that in many places their physical integrity was in danger. Sunday's rise, coupled with the executive [comments] from the parties on Monday, and then majority standstill of the country on Tuesday, drew a specific scenario. The King's speech on Tuesday surprised by its harshess and seemed to be the advancement for a step-up in police repression. Carles Puigdemont found the tone on Wednesday and reduced the tension. But on Thursday and Friday there cristallised a series of movements that were very well prepared by the Spanish government and by the minister Luis de Guindos, intending to force the flagship companies that have historically had their headquarters here, to look to relocate them in other zones of the Spanish state.
The citizen impact has been high, it is undeniable. And it will be necessary to see how it influences the intervention of the Catalan president next Tuesday in Parliament. It is precipitous to establish the definitive position now, although it is obvious that the land is none other than that the referendum has already been carried out, even if the conditions were neither desired by the Catalan government, nor those in which the State had worked on for months - those plans, yes, to dismount it all by interventions in technological centres. There's been little talk, however, of the resounding failure of the Spanish intelligence services (CNI) in their search for the ballot boxes. There are no nuances in the final appraisal, and this has provoked a high irritation in Madrid and the questioning of the work of the CNI on the ground. "Neither will there be ballot boxes, nor there will be queues of people voting," it was assured during many months of the official propaganda, but there were both things, except in those centres where violent police charges managed to take them away.
In a world like the present where language and image are of great importance, the first drops this week have been words. In three funeral vans with the final destination at the cemetery of Almudena, there were words that served very well to defend a position and which have been terminally eradicated from the dictionary of the RAE. The first drops have been dialogue, mediation and equidistance. A moderate person witnessed this week a very curious scene in Madrid. In a bar bar close to the Congress of Deputies, a middle-aged man insisted to another on the solution being in dialogue. In the end, his interlocutor exploded: "Do not talk about more dialogue to me; there's nothing more to speak about."
On the other hand, I witnessed this week another scene, anecdotal if you wish, but that until now had ever happened to me. It took place in a restaurant of the Eixample, close to the Monumental. Already with the dessert during a lunch with a pro-independence politician, a group of elderly people passed by our table. "Viva España!" one of them said in a loud voice. "Viva!" my guest replied, whilst another member of the group perhaps wanted to offset his friend, and in a little lower tone, proclaimed also on passing: "Viva España and Viva Catalunya!" and my colleague smiled again and said "Viva!" Those at the surrounding tables laughed at the scene and everything was left there.