Fent caminet cap a la independència de Catalunya

Els esdeveniments es van succeint més ràpid que no la meva capacitat d'escriure en aquest blog.
Com tothom sap a hores d'ara, la "consulta", referèndum parcial, "procés consultiu no vinculant" o el que voleu que el nomenem, del 9N ha estat un èxit aclaparador. 2.3 milions de ciutadans es van llevar al matí, van agafar el seu DNI, van trobar el lloc on podien votar, cosa no massa fàcil puix que només es podia votar als instituts d'ensenyament secundari i alguns altres locals, van fer cues de més d'una hora, a llocs sota la pluja, es van identificar davant de les meses constituïdes per voluntaris que des de bon matí estaven preparats i van dipositar la seva papereta expressant la seva voluntat en respondre a les preguntes plantejades. No va haver-hi cap incident i al final de la jornada no van quedar restes ni deixalles, tot net i polit i disponible per a seguir les vides amb normalitat l'endemà.
2.3 milions de persones no fan aquest esforç per a no res. No han embogit escoltant cants de sirenes mediàtiques, ni tenen reaccions viscerals a històries, slogans o simbolismes.
Han donat una passa endavant en una direcció clara: la independència d'una nació.
Qualsevol altra interpretació resulta buida i inconsistent.
Qui vulgui escoltar que escolti.

Òbviament que cal continuar treballant en un procés pacífic, democràtic i consistent amb les voluntats expressades.
I en això estem.

A la següent entrada d'aquest blog aportem unes idees per un aspecte de les decisions a incloure a un futur estatut o constitució.

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9N. The Catalan ersatz referendum. Midday chronicle

International Observers

 Granma and grandson voting together

I got up early. I am not a volunteer. Rather I am in charge of relations of ANC (Assemblea Nacional Catalana, the grass root movement for the independence of Catalonia) with the press and assisting international observers.

By 8.15 h. I was at one of the polling stations. They have been set in public High School buildings. Those buildings belong to the state, in Catalonia: the Generalitat. In small town the polling stations are in the town hall or the “civic centers”, usually used for senior citizens and cultural activities.

The General State Attorney had warned about the use of those buildings, and threatened school head masters and principals with administrative punishments if they open the centers. The way around it was to hand the keys to an unidentified “volunteer” to open the gates.

Police was supposed to identify whoever open the premises, but they were nowhere to be seen. You could see police cruisers diving by and just waving salutes from inside the cars.

Somebody (opposers to the polls) had try to inject silicon in the gates locks of the schools. However many had made a provision for that dabbing vaseline to the locks so the silicon could not stick. No problem there.

We went into the school as the managers of the polling station were giving the final instructions to the volunteers at the tables, Wi-Fi passwords and such.

Outside a long cue of would-be voters had been forming. More than 200 on my count and growing.

At 9 o’clock sharp the doors opened and the first voters were greeted with a warm applause of the volunteers.

We took the international observers to five different polling stations. They were two ladies from Scotland; one a member of the Scottish National Party and the other a member of the International Convention for European Citizens, a political organisation based in Brussels that watches over EU citizens rights. They were impressed by the order and the civic mood.

Not a single incident. Cheerful faces and restrained enthusiasm. We were voting!!

Somewhere before lunch I did a spot check in different tables and the mean number of votes registered was around 260. They should reach 300 easily by the end of the day. With more of 6000 tables in the whole country, you could figure out a general show close to 1.8 million voters. May be more.

X

The "consulta", ersatz referendum, "botifarrada" or what-have-you, is on

This is part of my correspondence with English speaking friends on this coming week in Catalonia:

The "consulta", ersatz referendum, "botifarrada" or what-have-you, is on. Relentlessly. We will vote.

It may be possible the Spanish government, with the admission to consider the ban to voting by the Tribunal Constitucional, will feel compelled to enforce the ban. It may. But that's shaky legal ground. They may ban the use of high school buildings, forbid directly the principals to open the centers, or threaten Artur Mas one way or another. But that won't stop the grass root organizations to bring out ballot boxes to the street and celebrate a great "fiesta". (InTarragona there are already plans to have a huge popular paella). At any rate it will be difficult to enforce.There are not enough police, Mossos, Guardia civil and others to control the more than 6000 voting places already announced. In every little town, more than 900 town halls and all the High School buildings everywhere. Plus the question about who would order the Mossos to go where. In case of any great catastrophe the police have their contingency plans to protect official buildings, communications and hospitals. The Policia Nacional  (some 700 cops)are already deployed to protect Spanish state official buildings and the post offices. La Guardia Civil is busy on their usual task of frontier posts and customs at the airports and harbors. The local police forces (municipales) are at the orders of town mayors, all of them (928 out of 946 municipalities) in favor of the independence, so little to do there.

That is a major logistic and tactical problem.

I do not even conceive the Spanish government would send any forces from outside Catalonia. That would be an even major strategic error/problem. The use of force against peaceful would-be-voters will hit hard on all news agencies all over the world plus EU, NATO and UN headquarters. That's a no-no. In here we are for a Si-Si 

That said, and even mistrusting the most elementary prudence of the Spanish government, what I foresee is they'll send some admonitions and tune down advice, and let the "fiesta" with whatever limitations to be celebrated. Waited it out and use spin doctors the next morning. Called it a fiasco and bring the attention to the predicted announcement of Catalonia elections in a couple of months time.

No matter what, the international attention would be guaranteed anyway.

I am directing my thoughts beyond 9N, and not just about Catalonia. The situation in Madrid is that of a major political crisis. The corruption tsunami may well overtake Rajoy's government, and that could happen in a matter of days, not weeks or months. The nervousness in Madrid political circles is mounting by the hour. Today's EL PAIS poll http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/11/01/actualidad/1414865510_731502.html signaling Podemos as the leading electoral option is seen with great concern. Not that I give much credit to sociologists on the whole and Metroscopia's in particular, but we may well believe that old saying in Spanish of "...cuando el rio suena, agua lleva...") (Will comment about Podemos some other time. Meanwhile read Enric Juliana today: http://goo.gl/MuYtyH )

At any rate we are looking forward to events beyond the Catalan scope that may be determinant of our little history.

Meanwhile and for this coming week:

    

XA

Catalonia: current events

I was going to write this perhaps Sunday afternoon, right after the new big rally in Barcelona`s Plaça de Catalunya. But things are moving in a way that I just thought I should point out some details of current events.

This past Monday announcement by Artur Mas that they were going to abide by the Constitutional Court ruling on the "referendum-like consult" and do something else, felt like a set back. And the ensuing proposal of a sort of "non official" survey added some confusion that hit badly many independentist Catalans. It has taken two or three days to recover the impulse. For a couple of days the campaign "Ara és l'hora" and actions to show colors (yellow) stopped. Now it`s all back on track.

Tomorrow (for saturday) in Tarragona will set in motion the door-to-door poll, aimed mostly just to show around to everybody what`s going on rather than an actual poll. After that`s done the voluntaries and everybody who wants it will attend a rally+vermut at the Balcón del Mediterraneo park. Local (regional) politicians like Josep Andreu and some media personalities will be speaking at the rally. That's in the line of festive celebrations are carried out all over the country to get support for the independence.

This morning Mr. Junqueras got emotional at a radio interview. Funny seeing such a big fellow sobbing about we were running out of time...

The civil leaders of the grass root movement, Carme Forcadell i Muriel Casals (they are both rather unsophisticated persons but highly determined) met Artur Mas yesterday. And with Oriol Junqueras today. Whatever they told them will not be public until Sunday at the plaça de Catalunya. But my inside information says they fronted them with three issues:

1 Exigence of unity of all the independentist parties whatever it takes

2 They (ANC and Omnium) will support the mobilization for the 9Nov poll, and whatever the results, a call for general elections within 2-3 months with the Declaration of Independence as key issue  

3 Promote a joint candidacy of united parties and civil society

They also demanded the catalan government to start legal actions in the European courts against the central Spanish Government on the grounds of civil liberties impediments.

Sunday's rally promises to be just as massive as all the previously held. 

What may happen in the coming days:

Rajoy's government may just ignore 9N poll in its current form (it would be their wisest move) as irrelevant, or

They may take it to the TC and make it illegal once more. As no "official" resources will be used there is no easy way to enforce any prohibition.

Catalans are going to go to vote with a vengeance (I think)

Either way, it will be a good show for foreign press (some hotels in Barcelona are already booked up for that day) and the European public opinion.

On the 10th, Artur Mas will announce general elections. By regulation, polls can be set 52 days after they have been announced. That puts us in the middle of the Holiday's Season, so most likely the call will be delayed to around the first day of 2015, to be held on or around the 22nd of February.

The question is going to be whether the leading man on the lists would be the incumbent Artur Mas, our sobbing big guy Mr. Junqueras or someone else: a widely accepted candidate to be the president of the Catalan Republic!!!

My bet would be on a lady. I’ll let you guess who.  

That, or la Guardia Civil taking over la Generalitat, just as they have done last night taking over the town hall of Alcanar, the last (or the first, depending how you look at it) town of Catalonia on some trumped charges of municipal malfeasance. 12 hours later they have set the mayor and his deputy free without charges without a judge intervention.

If they do, then we will be independent.

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