Why do I want independence?

1. A possible summary of the situation. Spain has told Catalonia that it will never have independence. Judicial, police, political, and media repression made that abundantly clear, and we are still paying the price. And a referendum on self-determination? Never. The obtuse State has also told us that quite plainly. And a special economic agreement, at least? Never. They should have asked for it back then, as the Basques and Navarrese did. And special funding, then? Never. We have already seen how the extreme right, Feijóo's lying right wing, and the... have responded in a cascade. males The most re-established members of the PSOE. If necessary, then, and so as not to offend so many people, we'll call it special funding, even though it isn't. Right? Not quite. We already saw this Sunday the response from the presidents of the autonomous communities where the PP governs. They prefer to give up billions of euros for services for their people rather than allow Catalonia to live somewhat better. That's how absurd and how outrageous it is. And, while we're at it, how about a principle of ordinality? Not a chance. Theory can withstand anything, but in practice, Spain doesn't want to allow a system of solidarity where the third-highest contributor is the third-highest recipient. Why? Because it's not fair to say that Catalonia could ever benefit from anything. Faced with the "everyone wins" argument that Minister Montero uses to defend the new funding model, the Socialist president of Castilla-La Mancha is calling for "the complete abandonment of this attempt at blackmail and granting privileges to the separatists." What privileges?

2. Another example. Let's talk about infrastructure. Managing El Prat Airport is important for self-governance. Well, last Thursday, at a breakfast meeting in Madrid—a bit of a short, sweet affair, but mostly empty rhetoric—the president of Aena (the Spanish airport authority) said that the airport's management wouldn't be possible either. "The transfer of management would be null and void." That's how Mauricio Lucena, from Catalonia, explained it, and he seemed perfectly content with that. Case closed, end of discussion. On the same day, the public company that, in the medium term, is supposed to solve the commuter rail chaos was unveiled. They've given it the rather unusual name of Cercanías de Catalunya (Catalan Commuter Rail), and when you look at the shareholders, it turns out that Renfe's stake is still 50.1%, that is, a majority stake, just in case... No planes, no trains, nothing. And we continue to say amen to this tidy branch office system, in which President Isla and many of our fellow citizens feel so comfortable.

3. Shall we talk about language? Spain has been part of the EU for forty years, but Catalan is still not an official language in Europe. When the PSOE, out of necessity, used international diplomacy to try to ensure that ten million Catalan speakers didn't feel slighted, the PP pulled every string behind the scenes to prevent it. These are the same people who get offended when Catalan, Galician, or Basque can be spoken in Congress. They don't get hives when... earpiece but rather to a language and culture that they mistakenly assume poses a risk or an attack on Spanish. These are the same people who, even today, and as always, deny scientific evidence such as the unity of our language.

4. Why is all this happening? Is it cynicism, ignorance, or malice? This widespread Catalanophobia, whether endogenous or atavistic, isn't limited to a handful of politicians and the dirty tricks of a state with so many Francoist tendencies. What surprises me, though, is our Stockholm syndrome towards those who constantly, permanently, and systematically mistreat us. If they only want us subjugated, always and in every way, then let's screw them over. Slowly. Civilly, peacefully, seeking to inspire large majorities, changing the leaders on the posters, and, of course, without a single piece of paper on the ground.