I also think, like Minister Puente, that Carles Puigdemont should pack his bags and show up in Barcelona, and get himself arrested if necessary, to demonstrate that Spanish justice is a political entity at the service of Spanish nationalism, and that it is indifferent to contradicting the CJEU, as it has already corrected itself regarding the popular sovereignty represented in Parliament. But I will not do it, because even though I am convinced that such a gesture would be good for the country, and bad for Spain's international reputation, I do not see myself able to ask for sacrifices from a person who has been forced to live away from her homeland for nine years.In addition to Puigdemont and other leaders, there are dozens of political officials and high-ranking civil servants whose futures are still compromised, as they are awaiting, two years later, the application of the amnesty that the pro-independence parties managed to impose on the PSOE in exchange for Pedro Sánchez's investiture. Two years of false reconciliation, of a forced reunion that is based on blackmail. This deceitful normality has gripped the freedom of action of two parties that paid dearly for the hesitations of 2017 and that have failed in all attempts to regain the initiative. Each has failed in its own way, with its own mirages; Junts, with the mystical trap of Waterloo, and ERC, with the prosaic trap of partial agreements that reality, shaped in Madrid, renders inapplicable. And in addition, there is the joint failure of rivalry and disunity, which has caused the option of presenting a weak PSOE with a genuine tug-of-war that would allow us to say that the Procés was not entirely in vain to fade away.The ruling of the CJEU is a reputational defeat for Spain and its judges, but for Catalonia it is only a tactical victory with limited impact. In short, everyone loses, but at least we can say that we are closer to closing one chapter – not that of the Process, but that of false reconciliation – and opening another: that of the new country project, presented without baggage, with new ideas and faces. Everything is more difficult than two decades ago, but those of us who were there are still here (in the background, but we are here), and the problems and threats that made us take to the streets, unfortunately, continue to lurk, even more serious and painful. A new generation must draw the future, without humiliating those who did not succeed, but without allowing themselves to be constrained by their legacy.Meanwhile, with Catalanism banned from the streets, football-mad Spain has gone on the offensive, because it knows what's at stake, because it has no other burning key to sustain its identity, and because in our country there are enough fools to swallow the World Cup placebo and forget about the fundamental question, which is who this monstrous state marketing operation truly benefits, who it is saving the furniture for, just as the 1978 championship saved the backside of dictator Videla.I hope, since we are talking about it, that after the suffocating experience of this Football World Cup, it will not be necessary to insist again to our politicians on the fact that the symbolic battle for Catalonia is as important as the battle for sovereignty or for taxes. It is demonstrated that symbolic capital, in plural entities, can be divided just as competences and resources are divided. The fact that Spain reserves its exclusivity, to make it a tool for unification and indoctrination through mass sport, denies the plurality of the State and is a luxury we cannot afford. That Catalonia and Euskadi participate in European-level championships would be a first step to correct this operation, so well crafted, of national assimilation through the leisure (or opium) of the people.
