At his first press conference in front of cameras around the world, Puigdemont said something that has gone quite unnoticed: The repressive data of the State owned by the Catalan Government gave him the preference to go abroad. What data did the president have in his hands?

"After Puigdemont has taken refuge in Brussels, several journalists are laughing and relativizing state violence. Why don't you tell the truth? Why don’t you explain to your readers that Mariano Rajoy wanted to decree Article 116, take out the army and attack the people?” The journalist Jesús Rodríguez of La Straight reported that a dozen journalists working for the Spanish media had “with many details” their intention to apply the emergency legislation.

In the same direction goes the writer and political analyst Jordi Graupera in El Nacional: "Both the president and the government studied whether they could withstand the presence of deaths. If the Generalitat applied the Transitional Law and made an effective republic, while the real power of law enforcement was the only immediate way, as in Lithuania, for people to defend institutions. The only question was how the state would fire, with metal or rubber bullets, or how they would leave the neo-Nazis free.” Faced with this, the Belgian move was chosen: to avoid this repression, to hinder Lamela's play and to bring the conflict to the nose.

The weak side, the imprisonment of the elected public representatives to carry out the mandate of the citizens and the progressive loss of control of the Catalan institutions. These days, the first technocrats who have come from Madrid to “manage” the Generalitat have shown that Castilian has never been imposed anywhere, as the King of Spain said in his day in Gernika. The first measure they have taken is that the internal documents of the Generalitat will be written in the language of Cervantes.

Although many insist that they would never think that the Catalan political class would be prepared to come to this situation, does this show Urkullu's willingness to negotiate?, the office policies of recent weeks have been criticized by the independence he has been mobilizing on the street. After the proclamation of many sectors, real steps were required to begin the construction of the republic: symbolic (removing the Spanish flags), legislators (convening the Parliament and approving the decrees they had already prepared to declare Article 155 of Spain illegal or publish the Declaration of Independence in the official gazette) and executives (returning all to their offices). However, the gradual loss of control of the Mossos makes it increasingly difficult to take this step, at least until the next elections.

Elections yes, but what for?

The rapid convening of the ballot box following the Rajoy coup d’état with Article 155 in Catalonia has been a rigorous move. Rigorous, but full of dangers. The independence that wants to build a republic was an opportunity to boycott these elections and control and dismantle the Generalitat by the age of four. But this is not going to happen, because the independence parties, most of the suffering of the heart, have decided to continue with the challenge of votes. The objective: Beating the state in the face, seeking independence from the ballot box. Overcoming the argument that the “referendum is illegal” they have had to hear so much, the state has put on the table the possibility of holding a third, and last? When these “autonomous elections” are considered in Catalonia as plebiscites, what will the state do to win?

Despite the difficult situation, independence may continue to widen its base. The choice of citizens in the face of the struggle between David and Goliath, the division in Podem and the increase in the participation that the state of emergency will carry out, must be seen to have an impact on the results. The truth is that independence would be a good thing if more of those who voted yes could be counted in the referendum on 1 October. Also count the number of negatives. “An illegal referendum can end up being legal,” says worried Mayor Oreja of the PP. The continuous questions that Puigdemont raises to the Spanish State and the European Union make clear the forecasts that the Republican parties are making: “We will respect the results and you?”

“If an independent government emerged after the elections, we would again apply Article 155,” said the Vice-President of the Senate. Despite the threats, after seven years of neglect, having had to respond to everything “cannot”, the Spanish State has finally entered into the political battle. The fear letter is strong and the pp knows how to use it well. In the State, in addition to contesting its right-wing electorate, it seeks to demobilize and discourage the bases by beating its adversary. A painful strategy, as everyone who has been in any political movement knows. In addition, as a gift, the members of pp have turned the article of the Constitution into an instrument to threaten anyone who leaves their political line. The Government of Catalonia, the CAV, Navarra or Castilla-La Mancha. Will the 155 be the new 78 Regime toy?

Spain will have in its hands the letter of violence and it is feared that it will be able to continue the arrests in the Basque Country. This State has no complexes to access anyone who suits it for political interests, if it does not ask the victims of the “everything is ETA” theory.

Therefore, independence faces a great challenge and a lot of questions: the elections yes, all right, but for what? Elections can be a way to strengthen them, but are elections a tool to do something that has not been possible so far? How can we start building the Catalan Republic? To seek control of the territory and to negotiate other things, how can we make the situation unsustainable for the Spanish State? The street has a lot to say.