As the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils have shown to the Catalans and, in recent years, the attacks in Paris to the French, in London to the English, Oslo to the Norwegians, Stockholm to the Swedes, Moscow to the Russians, Brussels to the Belgians and in many other cities such as Madrid, Nice, Berlin or Saint Petersburg, it is very difficult, practically impossible, to be safe from what has already become the planetary barbarism of terror that is nothing other than jihadist terrorism. The turn of the century added a degree of uncertainty into our lives, such as never witnessed before. There is no place, large or small, urban or rural, where with little means, an attack cannot be committed, falsely in the name of Islam and religion.
Hence the importance of security coordination between the police in different countries. This, in Europe, has a name: Europol, the body responsible for combating crime within the European Union. It is not trivial, therefore, to have access to this information in order to improve, among other things, the efficiency in the prevention and fight against terrorism. The attacks of Barcelona and Cambrils and the way in which the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have resolved the crisis, has raised an old issue, but one that should now certainly have a different solution: access for the Catalan police to the information centre of Europol. Initially, Spain's deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, tried to give it the run around, pointing out that access or not for the Mossos depended on Europol. But the agency's spokesperson, Tine Hollevoet, has elegantly put the ball back in the state's court: it is a matter for Spain, and one that has to be resolved in Spain.
To be resolved or not. Because the decision of the Spanish government is inflexible: only Spain's National Police force will be represented, since it is a matter for states. After fifteen dead in Barcelona and Cambrils, the answer is not only an error politically, but humanely incomprehensible. Is it, perhaps, that the Spanish government doubts the Catalan police force to such an extreme that it is made to work without precise information to protect the lives of Catalans? It turns out that in Catalonia, and beyond rivalries, the reality is that the Mossos are the only force deployed across the whole territory. So it's a bad thing, therefore, if the proposal to the Catalans is that their police will only be able to have direct access and a place in the control room where security is discussed, if they are a state. That more protection by the Mossos will only be possible if Catalonia is a state ... because the Executive of Mariano Rajoy has decided it.
That's to say, after the clear communication gaps that have been shown by foreign security agencies and authorities from other countries, that information given to Madrid never arrived to Catalonia is, at this moment, almost an invitation to independence. Or rather, without the 'almost'.