Complex solution to a simple problem

The eighth anniversary of October 1st has passed amidst the normalizing silence of socialism, the chronic convalescence of the pro-independence parties that were the protagonists of 2017, nostalgia for what we were, the malaise of a lost opportunity, and the reality of a world at war that now relativizes all those years filled with effort.

Asked about the anniversary, President Isla connected the beginning of the Process with the economic crisis of 2008, saying that it brought to the surface "populist approaches that offered magical and very simple solutions to complex problems." Perhaps this is a rhetorical argument, but we could also phrase it the other way around: independence was a very complex solution to a very simple problem.

It was a complex solution due to Spain's congenital inability to accept a referendum like the ones the United Kingdom and Canada accepted in Scotland and Quebec, the correlation of internal social and economic forces in Catalonia, the difficulty of eventual international recognition, and the distrust of the night. Independence was a complex solution.

But the problem was and is simple: we Catalans receive services far below our fiscal effort, the Catalan national identity will never be adequately respected, the language is a cause for rejection in Spain and among citizens of Catalonia who have no legal obligation to know it. The budgeted state investment is not met, and the state trains offer a pitiful service. And when the Catalan parties seek solutions in accordance with current legislation, they first run into the brush, as Tarradellas spoke of, and finally into a wall. With a state like this, the problem is very simple: why stay where you're not wanted?