The Generalitat-State Bilateral Commission held this Monday in Barcelona was supposed to serve to formalize the Spanish government's endorsement of the investiture agreement for Salvador Illa signed a year ago between the ERC (Republican Workers' Party) and the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). That agreement had two main pillars: on the one hand, the commitment that the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) must eventually collect all taxes, starting with personal income tax in 2026, and on the other, a new financing system for all autonomous communities that respects the criterion of ordinality. Well, in the end, neither one nor the other is taken for granted in the agreement signed between the two governments.

The question is not whether Spain spies. Obviously spying takes place. As in all surrounding European countries. As so often in Spain, the real question is the impunity with which people act against each other. That is to say, what democratic cost is paid when the law is transgressed and violated and what democratic control is exercised over power. It is clear that the overreach of the secret services and deep state activity will be as intense as the consequences of violating citizens' rights such as the secrecy of communications or the defence and expression of dissident ideas will be superficial.

In Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Angelina Jolie and Brat Pitt are a upper middle class marriage that hides a huge secret: they are both assassins and work for opposing sides. The situation is sustainable until the day that -you guessed it- they are assigned to kill each other and discover -surprise!- that their partner is at the same time the person who will make their lives impossible. Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Together for Catalonia (JxCat) discovered long ago that they were partners but also intimate enemies - as Oriol March and Joan Serra portray so well in their latest book - although this has not prevented them from continuing together, and even renewing their vows at the last minute in May.