I will not deceive you. It is now difficult to try to analyse what happened in Catalonia in the first week of mobilizations against the ruling of the Supreme Court, which has sentenced nine and thirteen years in prison nine independent political and social leaders.

First of all, one observation: nobody expected – whoever says otherwise lies – that reaction. I am not referring to the incidents that have taken place, even if that is the case, but to the ongoing mobilisation that is still taking place on the streets of the whole country. Infrastructure cuts, mass marches, spontaneous concentrations, etc. ; and a long protest in which everyone can find their place anywhere in the Catalan geography.

After two years of mourning, with chronic institutional paralysis, independence has again taken the lead in the streets. It has set aside some ridiculous forms of civil disobedience and peaceful protest, and has resorted to other methods that have not been criminalised so far, that is, none of them has been ruled out in order to create an unsustainable situation that the State is compelling to move files.

Having said that, security: The Spanish Ministry of the Interior is the one that de facto controls the currently active Catalan regional police. Some of us were able to verify in the early days of the protest that the authorities of the riot control units of the Spanish National Police gave orders to the Mossos when they were told when and where to load them. The explanation is simple: What incentive does the PSOE Government have to implement the National Security Act and formally take charge of the Mossos when it can do so through the back door and when it rejects all the pressure of police abuses on the Generalitat Government?

Palau is not in power and has once again overcome the popular responses. We are alone, but we are still “us.” After the first fear, our eyes lit up with a warm flare. A generation that we barely noticed waited for its relay and is not willing to accept anyone telling us when, how and where to protest. So far, the cost has been very high: in one week, 579 people have been injured, four of them have lost their eyes when being hit by the police launchers, two have lost testicular mass and another is seriously injured by a gunshot in the head. 194 people have been arrested, 76 of them with precautionary measures and 28 have been imprisoned without bail. It's still a constant drop by drop.

Most are adolescents, boys and girls under 25 years of age. They have stood before a world that advocates giving up economic precariousness, the climate crisis, cutbacks in civil and political freedoms, independence and the right to decide on everything that affects them. They have so little to lose that they have lost their fear. In October 2017, that fear was felt, because the same agents who are now facing attacked their schools. They say they're not comfortable facing the police, but they're convinced they don't want to give up self-defense. The State is afraid and the people have stopped turning their backs. So I'm sure the stake will fall with them sooner or later. Let no one cut their wings.