For those who are sceptical or incredulous, a first lesson: Catalan society is profoundly irritated with the verdicts issued by the Supreme Court and the demonstrations that with certain intensity have occurred since the decision was communicated are, apparently, the tip of the iceberg of what will happen in Catalonia in the days and weeks to come. The public's response to the terrible and unjust punishment imposed on the Catalan political prisoners exceeded expectations on Monday itself, with the collapse that happened at Barcelona-El Prat airport and numerous news focal points around the whole of Catalonia, and continued this Tuesday in the four provincial capitals and in the capitals of numerous counties and other towns. The sentences, as was to be expected, haven't solved anything and the pro-independence movement, in contrast to Pedro Sánchez's predictions, is not finished, nor has it renounced its objectives.
One of the mistakes that's always made from the distance of Madrid is to lack true information and convince themselves of things that will never come about. As such, with no transition for spectators to digest it, all the politicians and talking heads have gone from filling their mouths with how dangerous the CDR (Committees for Defence of the Republic) were, from the terrorism infiltrated among its ranks, from even naming a terrorist organisation they called ERT (Tactical Response Teams) that had never acted and which nobody had heard of, from arrests, which were very dangerous, of a "commando" which allegedly was preparing an attack... to asking what is the Tsunami Democràtic, who is behind it and what parties, entities or groups are pushing it. The acting interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska has had to go on TV saying that the CNI, Spain's intelligence service, was already investigating to find out who they are, forgetting that it didn't reflect well on them since nothing else has been talked about in Catalonia for weeks and, apparently, the CNI's ability to trace its origin has crashed up against its limited ability to get first-hand information. The search for the ballot boxes for the referendum two years ago ended, as is well known, a complete failure and is the first thing that always comes to mind.
What's certain is that in the 48 hours since the verdicts were made public, the institutions have adopted, so far, a certain low profile, far removed from their speeches and proclamations of recent times. The Catalan government has passed the response to the sentences to the Parliament in a move that is chalk and cheese with what presidents Artur Mas (a non-referendum consultation) and Carles Puigdemont (the 1st October referendum) did in their times. On this occasion, Quim Torra has only asked to appear in the Catalan chamber and it will be that institution that decides the strategy to follow. But there's an impression that the mobilisations in the streets aren't waiting to see what the institutions do and have their own agenda. In any case, the interesting thing will be to see if and when they come back together because, for now, the former are staying silent whilst the initiative is in the hands of the latter.