On the National Day, and in view of the number of volunteers there are to carry out the arduous task of thinking about the country, let my humble recommendation from here be to look at the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands. “We must get closer to Valencia,” said Josep Pla: there, on Saturday, there is a great demonstration in defense of public school in Catalan and against the pretension of subjecting it to ideological and linguistic control. It is a crucial fight for everyone. In the Balearic Islands, and in particular in Mallorca and Ibiza, the consequences of touristification are posed with harshness: massification, speculation, overexploitation of natural resources, tension and social inequalities, expulsion of the citizenry due to the impossibility of accessing housing, PISA results at the very tail end of everything. The recommendation is to look at them, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, not to confirm prejudices or archetypes, nor to exercise arrogance or paternalism, because the problems that arise there are, to a large extent, the same ones that Catalonia has. Aena milks us with identical voracity; the Civil Guard, the National Police and the Mossos hit us with the same dedication at demonstrations; the concern for the future (what future and in what conditions) is, more or less, the same throughout the Catalan Countries (and I am already aware that I have not mentioned Northern Catalonia, the Franja, or Alghero; I do so now).Another recommendation if one wants to think about the country is to look at the world. It is not the same as it was nine years ago, when on a day like today it had been a little over three weeks since the 17-A and a little less than three weeks remained until the 1-O. Discussing Catalonia regardless of the climate emergency is to expose oneself to manufacturing obsolete diagnoses and prescriptions from the start. Pretending to discuss immigration while simultaneously minimizing the influence of the far-right—ignoring or leaving out of the discussion the democratic involution and institutional corrosion that the far-right produces throughout the West—is completely missing the mark. It is even more misguided if one loses sight of the fact that Catalonia—and the Valencian Country, and the Balearic Islands—as a small, rich country of the south, and also its language and culture, are true delicacies for the gurus of the global anti-European far-right, potential Ceutas or Greenlands.We wanted a republic to have our own voice in these debates and for it to be a progressive, bold (I will spare the overused adjective revolutionary), open, profoundly and radically democratic voice, with an identity built on the Catalan language and culture that would be capable of welcoming the languages and cultures of the people who come to live here and benefiting from them. That instead of this, public debate has succumbed to the provocations of a few self-proclaimed saviors, to the masturbatory rhetoric of warmongering speeches, or to the rehash of age-old squabbles (where everyone's grandparents were from, for example), is disappointing. Despite this, despite the stifling atmosphere and the feeling of the end of days, the future remains ahead. Long live a free Catalonia and a happy National Day to everyone, except the fascists.