One of the worst insults one can receive in this country is that of “processist”. We were so fed up with the political episode that culminated in October 2017. For Spaniards, the Process was a seditious and irresponsible exercise. For independence supporters, it was a display of improvisation and cowardice. Both sides are united in their stubborn determination to discredit the protagonists of that adventure. This coincidence in harsh criticism contrasts with the very different price that the two sides have paid for it On the independence side, there has been a considerable washout, due to repression and personal wear and tear. Changes in politics are logical; the subsequent public lynching by the most irascible sector of the sovereignist bases themselves is not so much. All in all, it seems evident to me that the punishment (real and reputational) suffered by the repressed has been much more severe than that of the repressors. It can be argued that grassroots independence showed itself extremely solidarity at least until the Tsunami Democràtic (which also failed) and the Urquinaona incidents; afterwards, the dispute between the symbolic fanfare of exile and the pactist turn of ERC spread disillusionment. Finally, the idea prevailed that the leaders of the Process, by focusing on the anti-repression struggle (which resulted in pardons and amnesty), were helping to bury – once again – the sovereignist dispute. The two main protagonists of the Process – Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras – remain at the forefront. The first has been in exile for nine years; the second spent four years in prison and remains disqualified. Both are waiting for the amnesty, wrested with forceps from the PSOE government, to overcome the obstacles posed by the vindictive Spanish judiciary. However great the mistakes they made in 2017, they have paid for them in full. Both want a last dance, an opportunity to redeem themselves.
I have read articles by intelligent and well-informed people who say that Catalan independence – and by extension, Catalan politics – will not be able to enter a new phase until it "cleans house" with the generation of the Procés. That Junts and ERC have anchored themselves to two leaders who represent the past, and that the past is a burden. Perhaps it is true. But I have also read and heard from not-so-intelligent people, and generally very young, who speak of Junqueras and Puigdemont with a contempt and cruelty that enrages me. The frustration that has been building since 2017 is totally understandable, but perhaps we forget that we are a country that has been forged through failures and resilience. Let's think of Josep Tarradellas: an imposing figure, rising from the ashes of war and exile. In 1977, the generation of the Transition understood that they could not embark on the path of self-government again without rehabilitating – with all honors – the politician who represented the defeat of forty years prior. Even though the majority of the population had forgotten him. Or let's think about the Prats de Molló events, now that their centenary is being celebrated: in 1926, Francesc Macià and about 200 volunteers from Estat Català were plotting a revolutionary and separatist coup during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. They intended to cross the border, proclaim a republic in Olot, and rouse the country. The adventure was thwarted by the French gendarmerie before it could even begin. Macià, ridiculed in Spain as a senile and naive old man, instead became a myth in Catalonia. On his failure was built the republican success of 1931. We are not a powerful country. But we could be, at least, a generous country. A country that does not despise and insult the rebels who failed.
