Älex Sàlmon, 11 April 2023
Archive image of Marta Rovira, next to Carles Puigdemont, at a demonstration.
The Alias Matagalls
There were several actions in the street, following the sentences handed down to imprisoned politicians, which required a purified organisation.
For a pro-independence activist, what happened during the ‘procés’ was legal because it had a mandate with the addition of “democratic”. For constitutionalists, the whole thing is considered a democratic and illegal nonsense. With the passage of time, and in a homemade way, we could make a ranking of the worst moments of those days. Opinions would not coincide. Everyone would be carried away by their own thesis, in some cases political and in others of street agitation.
From a personal point of view, the events of 20 September in the Catalan Parliament, which dealt a blow to the legality of the institution itself, are the most serious events of those days. Many political scientists who have reflected on the ‘procés’ in a cold way agree with this analysis. On that day, and the next, any method known in a parliament to change laws by a deceptively consensual route was blown to bits. But there was more.
1 October itself, the day of the illegal referendum, was part of this political nonsense, but in some way it was a consequence of that day, giving the appearance of legality to an action that was not.
As for the street mobilisations, their typologies and intensities marked different states of violence. One, the most common, moved the street demonstration to the area around the Government Delegation. Those who promoted it were responsible for the destruction of all the urban furniture, but they ended up becoming daily, almost daily. However, there were several street actions, following the sentences handed down to the imprisoned politicians, which required a refined organisation.
They were the takeover of Barcelona airport, the AVE high-speed train stations and the blockades of the AP-7 motorway. They were encouraged by the so-called Tsunami Democràtic and, underhandedly, by the Catalan government itself at the time. And now that the investigation points to Marta Rovira, alias ‘Matagalls’, we will have to reflect on whether her criminal situation changes. Or not?
https://www.elperiodico.com/es/opinion/20230411/alias-matagalls-articulo-alex-salmon-85874642
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