The announcement by the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, in the unique interview published in El Nacional on Sunday, advancing what will be his negotiating strategy with Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister, from 2nd October if the 'yes' vote wins the independence referendum, means, in practice, the start of the campaign only 35 days before the date of the ballot boxes. A short negotiation, discussed very properly, and very well negotiated, he pointed out. In these three ideas the valuable roadmap is condensed for the coming months. An outline that is clearly not full of difficulties, but in the words of the Catalan president ends up becoming a normal debate between those who are decided to self-determine and those who are decided to prevent it.
With the ballot boxes already bought, the Law of the Referendum presented to Parliament waiting to be processed, the Law of Transitional Jurisprudence prepared by Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) and the CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy) waiting to be introduced at an appropriate political moment, the census [polling] cards in negotiation so that they can be distributed as in any normal electoral event, the Catalan government decided to sign the decree to call the 1st October referendum, the Mossos (Catalan police) willing to accept formulas that allow them to guarantee normality on the electoral day, the only thing that is not on the table is that the referendum may not be celebrated. And this, with the permanent threats from the Spanish state, is an important paradigm shift.
However, the reaction of huge irritation from the political and media establishment for the demonstration against terrorism last Saturday in Barcelona, and the attempts to undermine the massive protest against the attacks of 17th and 18th August in Barcelona and Cambrils, they have intentionally placed the debate in the intense whistling against the king and Rajoy. The latter is true, but in terms of the citizenship it can never be as important as the massive response seen. And it is striking how the whistling makes for great theories from Madrid by those who for years have predicted what Catalan society will do, and whose predictions fail systematically.
The king and Rajoy should have listened to those wise voices from Barcelona, advising them not to go to the demonstration. There were several, it wasn't just a few. The Spanish prime minister cannot ignore that he embodies in the first person the greatest obstacle to celebrate a referendum, an option desired by between 70-80% of the citizens, according to all the surveys. To shelter behind the king and use him as a fire-guard might have been possible at a closed event but not at an open one, where the citizens can express themselves freely.
The truth is that reading the media from Madrid during these past hours, listening to some debates and watching the manipulation by Televisión Española (Spain's state-owned public broadcaster), one can conclude that the sordid battle that has been played out for a long time from the trenches, has now moved to the open field. And that the media artillery that has already been employed on previous occasions will appear sooner rather than later.