A tale to justify intervention

Pedro Sanchez’s intervention in Congress did not sit well with the Catalan government. Nor did the fact that the PSOE brandished the phantom of article155 of the Spanish constitution. President Quim Torra revealed his “surprise and astonishment” in the Catalan parliament yesterday at the letters sent by the Spanish government reproaching him for not acting on the AP-7 blockade last Saturday and threatening to take control over police interventions. “It is part of the tale invented to build up violence and mayhem in Catalonia in order to apply article 155 to the Catalan police or in general. We have already experienced this” warns Torra, in reference to the events of September 20 2017 for which the Jordis are in jail. “When we thought politics was coming to Catalonia, more police officers arrived, let’s get back to having a dialogue!” urged the president regarding Sánchez’s warnings in the morning, as he revealed his “alarm” that Sánchez was taking on right-wing discourses. “Moves are being made to build up a false tale of violence; the faces have changed but the steps are the same” added Sergi Sabrià, leader of Esquerra Republicana.

Torra’s call to follow the Slovenian route has also been used to bolster this tale. Yesterday he pointed out that for him the route consists of the elections in parliament that “gave strength” to carry out a referendum and declare independence. “This is where the Slovenian route ends and perhaps where another route begins,” he said regarding the invasion of the Yugoslav army and the subsequent deaths of around sixty people. “The path to freedom has been, is and will always be civic, peaceful and democratic; none of the pro-independence MPs could do it any other way” he said yesterday.