Translator's note: In the late 70s, as part of Spain's "transition to democracy", Catalonia gained the status of "autonomous community", Franco's dictatorship having been strongly centralising. During the dictatorship, Catalonia had three presidents-in-exile: Lluís Companys, Josep Irla and Josep Tarradellas.
I hadn't been back to the Catalan Parliament since the declaration of independence on 27th October last year, a day which quickly went from being historic to being described as symbolic or, in an even more sweetened version, political. After accepting article 155 and prostrating itself before the Rajoy-called election, today there was something of a prehistoric atmosphere in the Catalan chamber. The day's attraction, to see Roger Torrent crowned the youngest Honourable member ever to lead the chamber, and the second from Girona to do so. The speaker and I share the blessing of belonging to a good vintage, 1979, which, apart from forcing us to wear beards to seem more mature than we are and being able to sing the Dr Slump opening theme from memory ("Ja està aquí, ja arriba Araleee. Tintitintitintintiiin, tikitikitintenteeen", etc), means we share the strange privilege of being one of the first generations educated in democracy in Spain, with the resulting and scant legacies of the past and a natural tendency to speak clearly, unevasively. The ironies of life, because the speaker who should be the most shameless and republican has started revealing a realistic rhetoric which the independence movement will get used to very quickly: apart from regretting the absence of those in prison and in exile, Torrent couldn't avoid giving a glimpse that this legislature of the pre-autonomy is, above all, about recovering the institutions delimited by the '78 self-government model. Shortly before, Ernest Maragall had spoken, one of the hypothetical candidates for the throne, with a much more heated speech, like an uncensored grandfather who, in all this, has little at stake.
This Parliament is far more keen to restore normality than to see historic days which end up in unlikely republics and very severe trials
Speakerships aside, the appearance of the chamber calls attention for the empty seats, a hole of extraordinary symbolic strength, but one which the pro-independence side still doesn't know how it will manage to turn to its advantage. In the Parliament's corridors, people from ERC tell me that everyone is very aware that the idea of investing Puigdemont at a distance will be impossible. It will be necessary, then, very soon, to know who will substitute the 130th Right Honourable president of Catalonia, who can be as symbolic and representative as they want, but who will be the person who occupies the president's office in the Catalan government palace and who signs all the decrees appropriate of the role, that is, if the next president manages to sign anything beyond the distribution of the trees in the courtyard outside his office.
That's the tension seen today in the chamber: there are deputies who still want to hold on to the symbolic value of a president-in-exile and others already endeavouring to work out how the day-to-day work for the public will be administered within the framework of the Spanish Constitution. Some call it realism, I call it pre-autonomy. This Parliament, whatever form it takes, is far more keen to restore normality than to see historic days which end up in unlikely republics and very severe trials. From now on, the Spanish judiciary has made it very clear what the risks of disobedience will be: the deputies know what they are exposing themselves to and, if they find themselves interested by the whispers of doubt, Spain has four hostages in its prisons to serve as a reminder.
We're not just in pre-autonomy, we find ourselves in the kingdom of prehistory. Welcome to the era of seeing what happens.