Joaquim Coll, 25 August 2021
Historian
Image: The leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras.
The secessionist world, be it Junts, CUP or ERC, is still hooked on their falsehoods and self-deception
When one returns to the current affairs of Catalan politics after a few weeks of disconnection, one sadly finds that the secessionist world, be it Junts, CUP or ERC, is still hooked on their lies and self-deception. Unlike the fantasies that were repeated almost in unison during the peak years of the ‘procés’, now not all of them say or propose the same thing. Hyperbole and hoax continue to single out them, but they distribute falsehoods for all tastes. Let’s see. On the one hand, there are the supine tricks that the toughest drop in that forum of ‘hooligans’ that is the Universitat Catalana d’Estiu, which is not a university or anything, but a mere hobby subsidized, of course, by the Generalitat with the money of all Catalans. The comedy duo formed by Quim Torra and Laura Borràs have passed through there, meeting to curse the dialogue table while ensuring that the Parliament could activate the unilateral declaration of independence (DUI) at any time. On his part, the vice president of Catalan Government, Jordi Puigneró, has made his particular ode to unilateralism and insisted that “we will do it again as many times as necessary.” But the biggest nonsense has been carried out by the mayor of Girona, Marta Madrenas, who has already asked to “unbalance the Spanish State” with the applause of Mireia Vehí, a CUP deputy, who in turn has made a call to the confrontation.
In front of all those wet dreams of the armchair revolutionaries, whose income is about 100,000 per year, we have the apparently most realistic speech of the Republicans and their leader Chaplain Oriol Junqueras, who in September will celebrate a decade leading ERC. Last Sunday he explained a curious theory according to which if the dialogue with the Spanish Government fails, that is, if the independence movement does not obtain after a long negotiation neither amnesty nor self-determination, the international community would be willing to endorse another unilateral referendum, unlike what happened in 2017 in which it did not obtain any recognition. Everyone knows that from that table that will meet on September 13, there will not be an agreement to vote for secession, now or ever, if a constitutional change is not made first. Also that the EU is not going to support processes of territorial disintegration of its member states. Junqueras should therefore explain who he is referring to when he affirms that “the international community looks at us and asks us to try dialogue.” It is evident that the lie (perhaps well-intentioned) is directed at his own parish to ask him for patience for the next two years and thus be able to resist the attacks of Junts and the CUP, feeding the hope that in the end, one day, the world world will help the “oppressed” independentists who manage a budget of 46,000 million. Now, there is something worse than a lie, the egotistical cynicism of Junqueras when he compares himself to Gandhi (other times he has done the same with Mandela) and insists on the pathetic theory that Catalonia is a Spanish colony, as Ireland or the India in the hands of the British.
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