COLONIAL “NORMALITY”
The repression of the Catalan government and thousands of independence supporters to prevent the Catalan Republic proclaimed on October 27, 2017, from becoming a reality exposed the anti-democratic character of the Spanish regime of 1978 to the whole world, revealing no break from the bloody Franco dictatorship. The subsequent lawfare has conditioned the Catalan Parliament to tame the Catalan parliamentary parties.
The pardons granted in 2021 and the irregular application of the 2024 amnesty law, which served above all to grant amnesty to the police forces responsible for the violence with which they attempted to prevent the self-determination referendum of October 1, 2017, went in the same direction.
The current president of the Catalan government, Salvador Illa, claims that we have now entered a new stage of normality and he presents himself as an efficient manager. But what credentials does he have? In October 2017, he demonstrated against the independence of Catalonia alongside the leaders of the neo-fascist VOX party and approved the subsequent repression of independence supporters. As for his time as Spanish Minister of Health during the pandemic, he cannot boast any particularly convincing results either: the number of Covid-19 victims in Spain was notable.
And what political lines has his government developed, apart from showing political submission to the government of the metropolis?
It is clear that the supposed “singular financing” that was to be obtained for Catalonia will only continue the usual plunder of the Catalan Countries as something special. A five-year spending project of around 18,500 million euros is put forward as a great thing. Normally, these promises are not fulfilled. Anyway, this amount is small compared to the more than 22 billion euros in tax revenue that leaves Catalonia each year and never returns.
On top of that, as a result of the premeditated financial asphyxiation of Catalonia, which causes debt, Spain charges interest to the Catalan Government. On the other hand, difficulties in getting its own budget enacted show its weakness and the anomalous political situation.
Furthermore, a disastrous economic model due to the intervention of the hypercentralist Spanish State aggravates tensions for maintaining the welfare state in healthcare, housing, education, and so on. In relation to this, the new puppet government has already shown its intentions to continue the cultural genocide attempted during the Franco dictatorship and before. Thus, in December it presented a project to remove Catalan language and literature as a compulsory subject in secondary schools. Only a rapid reaction from Catalan society forced its withdrawal.
In short, the normality that Mr. Illa preaches with the help of a powerful and subsidised media apparatus is antidemocratic and colonial. In fact, despite the Spanish narrative devised to cause a collective global amnesia, Catalonia meets all the points of the United Nations to be considered a colony.
Despite its contradictions, the national liberation movement of the Catalan people is still very much alive, as witnessed by the numerous streets and squares in towns and cities dedicated to October 1, 2017. Logically, the Catalan people’s desire for decolonisation and a dignified, sustainable future free from the structural inefficiency and corruption of Spain will persist until independence is achieved. This is also evident from a plaque on the monument in front of the Dalí Museum in Figueres, dedicated to a Catalan philosopher much appreciated by the brilliant painter. The inscription reads, “Catalan thought always sprouts again and survives its deluded gravediggers”.