Pol Molas: "At eighteen they make you choose between being Catalan and being a soldier"

On WhatsApp he appears prominently, serious and institutional, and in his status he has an owl emoji: "They are silent, they see everything and they do their job effectively." President of the Society for Military Studies (SEM) and author of New Flock. Re-establishing Catalan Naval Power, he works to correct the lack of knowledge of defense policy in the service of Catalan national interest.Where does your passion for military matters come from?

— My father had an illustrated encyclopedia of battleships and battlecruisers from Salamander publishing house: I started learning English thanks to that book. I have always been very interested in this world, but the problem in our country is that, at 18 years old, they make you choose between being Catalan and being a soldier.

What would you say to a pacifist who celebrates this national exceptionalism?

— One must get Spain out of one's head: nothing can be built from trauma. Everything that has been said about the barbarities of the Spanish army is true: even without the national conflict, the lack of professionalism and the sloppiness are unacceptable. Therefore, we must look to advanced societies like Switzerland, Denmark, or Finland, all with different modalities of military service. Pacifism ensures that the military institution does not override civilian government and that defense spending is not excessive, two things I fully agree with. But being a pacifist has nothing to do with remaining defenseless.

Doesn't it represent that we are people of peace?

— From the SEM we develop a barometer to know the opinion of Catalans on defense issues, which is something that is never asked in official surveys. And, despite the pacifist dogma and the rarity of the question itself (because all states have it precisely because they already have an army), the results are those of a perfectly normal country. More than 60% of citizens with Catalan national sentiment respond that they would like an independent Catalonia to have armed forces, and this rises to more than 70% among young people, for whom the trauma of Spanish military service is a distant memory.

And why then does pacifism seem so hegemonic in our country?

— It is the result of having had the State against us for three centuries. Added to the trauma of '39 and the influence of the hippie culture of the sixties, a deposit of learned helplessness has remained. The grace, however, is that we also have a deposit from previous centuries of military culture that still holds.

Do Catalans have military virtues?

— The key to the Catalan military ethos is civic perspective. Already from the medieval era, the prínceps namque usage stated that able-bodied men had to defend the Principality against an invasion, but they could not be forced to serve in offensive expeditions outside the territory without prior agreement.

"Armed people, respected people"?

— If the Catalans had a greater degree of freedom than other peoples, it was largely because citizens kept their weapons at home, added to the fact that, after the Remença War, quasi-owners began to emerge. This makes a big difference compared to places where there is only a mass of impoverished peasants at the mercy of an aristocracy that controls the weapons.

What remains of this deposit?

— The vocation for service and volunteerism are virtues very present in the country, as well as the desire to participate in something that goes beyond yourself and commitment to society. And this is manifested in areas with a lot of risk, such as forest defense associations. The well-understood culture of defense is nothing more than the idea that, when the time comes, you would go to the last consequences to protect the country. And whenever it has been necessary to take to the streets to defend the nation, Catalans have done so.

Terrify me defending your ideal model.

— Power never controls itself; the people must have a culture of self-defense. In Switzerland, there is mandatory military service, and from when you do your service until you become a reservist at 46 years old, you guard the state's weapon. The double advantage of this is that you have a society prepared to respond to threats, and citizens who are not just someone who votes every four years. It is no coincidence that the Swiss have avoided wars for 200 years nor that they have such an admired system of direct democracy.

Certain armies, such as the North American one, are full of ultra-violent and neo-Nazi groups.

— Precisely because there only 4% of the population has gone through the military institution. With strictly professional armed forces that depend on a small and eccentric set of recruits, you lose the citizen counterbalance. This is added to the fact that American society is very unequal and fragmented, with a lot of racism and mutual fear. In Switzerland, people don't kill each other in the streets because there is the civic base we were talking about.

And non-violence?

— It makes sense within the European Union, because no state can open fire against the civilian population without generating legitimacy and internal refugee crises that would collapse the edifice. This does not mean that things are not done in what is called the "grey zone": it is not enough to say that the fiscal deficit is a form of conflict below the threshold of violence that does not aim to collect money, but rather that Catalonia loses economic and industrial power.

But non-violence is not just turning the other cheek: it can provide moral capital that, in today's world, is a first-order geopolitical asset.

— Non-violence must be strategically planned, but at the same time its limits must be understood and that you cannot achieve victory with moral capital alone. If they decide to escalate, you must have a plan. And if you decide to endure the blows, you must be willing to endure them. With 24-hour hunger strikes, instead of gaining moral capital, you lose it.

What do you repeat the most on left-wing profiles?

— It is perfectly legitimate to be against NATO, but the only way to be a neutral country is to have a defense structure that is especially robust and responsible, like Switzerland's.

And for the right-wingers?

— Defense must obey national interest, and not ideological likes and dislikes: the partners you end up having may not be who you thought.

What should we know about Catalonia from a military point of view?

— We are not self-sufficient in food or energy, which means that if our communication routes for imports are cut off, we will have problems. However, in terms of geography, Catalonia is a very easy country to defend: the territory is full of mountain ranges that confine the communication routes.

Do you have weapons at home?

— No, but I think it's fine to have them as long as it doesn't become fetishism. The Finnish recruit's manual says "the weapon is a tool, it is not an extension of your ego".