Far from the Principality of Catalonia, there is an island territory where the Catalan language and the feeling of belonging make it feel surprisingly close: l'Alguer. This city, incorporated into the Crown of Aragon in the 14th century, still preserves a living variant of Catalan today. There, identity beats strongly, sustained by words, traditions, and celebrations that are passed down from generation to generation. Festivals, like languages, are mirrors in which people rediscover that version of themselves that endures over time.

The situation of Catalan is complex in Alghero, where it is only the first language of a quarter of the population, 88% understand it, but the transmission to children today does not reach 4%, according to the latest survey of language use, from 2015. Catalans, in a territory then governed by the Crown of Aragon. The mayor, Raimondo Cacciotto, has taken a step forward this February to make the name of the city in Catalan official and preferential, but he also has a plan that will come into force next school year so that the language reaches schools. In fact, 400 parents have already requested the learning of Catalan.

Spanish Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena has perplexed the European courts and is the main responsible for the fact that the international image of the Spanish state is at a low ebb, at least in the legal sphere. His obsession to achieve the extradition of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has even led him, in the case of Italy, to try to deceive the European General Court (EGC), which thought that the European arrest warrant was suspended because the Attorney General's Office had said so. This Monday, however, Sassari's Court of Appeal has decided to suspend the extradition procedure until the EGC rules on Puigdemont's immunity and the Court of Justice of the European Union rules on the pre-trial question Llarena submitted when a Belgian court rejected the extradition of former minister Lluís Puig.

The new judicial vaudeville of the judge Pablo Llarena against former president Carles Puigdemont has not even lasted twenty-four hours. Jailed upon arrival in Alghero on Thursday night, the Catalan leader in exile has left this Friday afternoon in freedom without precautionary measures, with the possibility, therefore, to return to circulate in Europe (except the Spanish state) without impediments. The persecutory anxiety of the judge of the Supreme Court with the pro-independence political leader has long since taken on a grotesque air. Every step he takes is a setback. It seems that Llarena, obsessed, does not at all appreciate the disrepute in which he is bringing the Spanish justice system into disrepute. Otherwise, he would stop firing procedural shots, most of which end in fiasco. This time he wanted to play cat and mouse with the European arrest warrant, which he should have withdrawn - but did not - in order to catch Puigdemont in the act. As a result, once again Llarena has seen, in this case at the hand of an Italian judge, how the Catalan MEP emerged triumphant from his fleeting passage through a night behind bars: "Spain never misses an opportunity to make a fool of itself", said Puigdemont once free.