It was just a story. You could wait, to put it in some way. The Spanish Supreme Court has unanimously ratified what the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia said ten months ago: the five magistrates have declared that Quim Torra spits out the Central Electoral Board of Spain, and in a "forceful" way, when he received the order to withdraw banners of social and political prisoners. The disqualification of one and a half years has entered into force within a few hours of the judgment on abortion. If before the Government was quite staggering, the sentence makes it even worse, forcing the end of the legislature. In the last few hours it appears that the date of the elections has been set: 7 February.
A member of the SePC’s Països Catalans Syndicate informed me in the morning, without knowing the ruling, that Torra is not “the representative of all the Catalan independentists” and that he had doubts about the answer that the ruling of disqualification would have. It contrasts with what happened in previous years. In any event, he clearly stated that the trade union was going to show its support for doing what was done. Well, it only took a couple of hours before the word of the Supreme Court was known, and the news was widely disseminated in the media and social media.
In the evening, mobilizations were convened, and this also led to the following: Former CUP councillor Mireia Boya, who left the party due to the Machian aggressions, was opposed to the stance of the political parties saying that “the parties only think about them” and invited him to attend the CoR call in Barcelona. The CoR already had time to mobilise on the day the judgment came out.
The last time Quim Torra spoke was about 18:30 a.m., shortly after the sentence became effective. He has spent two years in office and stated that he had to live “of everything” – in the interview that Berria’s daily newspaper brought on Sunday said that the worst moment was the withdrawal of the act of deputy. However, with the support of the Government in the statement, it continued with the attitude maintained so far, describing the actions of the Spanish State as “unfair”. “Repression has no limits, but autonomy does,” he said.
The Mossos d'Esquadra were informed through the Catalan media that they were prepared for mobilizations and incidents. Schedules and shifts were suspended to “ensure responsiveness”. And as a sign of that, the police presence throughout the day was enormous. For food, nothing else to know the sentence, half a dozen vans from the National Police were outside their headquarters, rather than the only one that is usually there. In the city centre, patrolling of the Mossos and the city police could also be seen everywhere, especially more than in previous days.
The CoR convened a concentration at 19:30 hours at the entrance of the Gracia district of Barcelona, and then headed towards the city center for a demonstration full of demands. At the same time, in the presence of another action called by the ANC and Òmnium, a crowd gathered with the CoR; according to La Direct, about two thousand people. Young and not so young. However, before we started doing anything, the first identifications and arrests occurred. After the concentration, the aim was to reach the delegation of the Spanish Government in Barcelona, through the Passeig de Gracia, with a specific destination, but with a planning and an organization not so specific. However, the Mossos closed the area from one side to the other and several participants threw plastic pork heads at police officers.
The idea of going to Parliament had already been widely disseminated the news that the Via Laietana had been taken by the protesters. Humor and encouragement were not lacking yet. The containers began to operate along the way; the police did not intervene, although they were behind, ahead and on the sides. The Catalan Parliament is in a fenced park and, of course, was closed by chains for the arrival of the demonstrators – the Mossos had already shielded the Parliament building throughout the day. After a while they managed to break the chains and even though people were coming together as the afternoon advanced, only a small percentage of protesters entered, most waited outside, especially because the area had not many exits. Although they entered the park with the idea of entering Parliament, as they have already tried for years, this time the attempt was also left to nothing. Then there were barricades and clashes with the police until it was decided to leave the place and leave the place.
A large part of the demonstrators had already left at 22:00. The cries of “Urquinaona, we do it again” were increasingly heard, remembering last year’s incidents. On the way, the situation got even more agitated: the roads full of containers and rubble, the police vans were on the sidewalk and meanwhile the bar and several shops were open, they were thrown into the search for the protesters. Pending the data, but those identified, beaten or detained could have been enough in the final straight of the day.
Walk from a train station, two friends and a hug. This hug will be frozen until the next meeting. I'll come home, he'll stay there. There, too, will be free the painful feeling that injustice wants us to catch. Jesús Rodríguez (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, 1974) is a journalist,... [+]