Madrid applauds the good independence movement (of Greenland)

Not so many years ago, the norm regarding the world's independence movements in the Madrid press was as simple as the mechanism of a hammer: it was necessary to always, always deny any resemblance to the Catalan case. And, secondly, to maximize the defeats and minimize the victories of that movement. Now, the case of Greenland challenges this logic and puts the narratives of the state press in a dilemma: Trump's annexationist dreams make the Arctic island's aspirations for independence look good and are even desirable. Having to strike that balance—applauding, but without giving wings—requires new and innovative narrative tools. The Country has made an interesting discovery, with its front-page headline: "Moderate independence movement achieves victory in Greenland." Obviously, among the secessionist movements, there may be more extensive and more gradual ones, but the ultimate goal is the same: a passport of their own. There are no gray areas here. Adding the "moderate" label is an obvious way of legitimizing it. And they would never have agreed to assign this label to a certain independence movement that advocated the radical idea of organizing a referendum agreed upon with the State to hear the opinions of the citizens of one of their historical nationalities.

The World, Public, The Mail, Abc, Eldiario.es and the RTVE website: they all agree on writing "moderate independence." We can stand up straight on the chair; if we were in 2017, this adjective wouldn't even be a joke, and the inner circle (and the not-so-inner circle) would speak in terms of separatists and disaffected people. It will be interesting to see what happens if the party succeeds, with its proposal to build what could well be assimilated into state structures, and moves on to proposing emancipation. My bet is it will automatically become radical. Or "radical," which is more frightening.