I want to make it clear, so that there are no misunderstandings, that I have no affinity with Catalan independence nor, beyond his status as a stubborn fighter, with Carles Puigdemont. I say this because, in this fratricidal scenario, of immaculate whites and radical blacks, independent opinions seem to have no place, not even those based on simple, simple, common sense, which has become the scarcest of senses. For this very reason, because I undertake to express my free opinion to the extent that I can contribute to a clean and open debate, I must state that I do not find any terrorist complicity in someone like the former president of the Generalitat, today resident – it is a way of speaking, or of writing – in Waterloo.
And what I am saying is also not intended to be a support for the central government in the search for support from Junts deputies to continue governing: it is, purely and simply, that I do not find Puigdemont’s terrorist activities on any side, whatever some judge says, whatever the Spanish right says.
Terrorism has no nuances
It seems to me that there is no need to define terrorism in an ambiguous way, nor do I think that there are different levels of terrorism, so that a low-intensity one is occupying an airport in a protest. Nor, of course, can the death of a traveler at this airport, due to a heart attack, be attributed to involuntary manslaughter. I don’t think there are many criminal justices who would charge this crime, the airport chaos, beyond public disorder. And I agree with Minister Bolaños that ETA’s terrorism has nothing to do with the activities of the Process, with Tsunami or without.
What is different is that, in the search for an alliance with Junts, figures have been decriminalized which, like sedition or, in part, embezzlement, seem to me to constitute inescapable crimes. But I’m saying: this is a different issue and, if you want, even distant from something so serious, which has done so much harm to us all, like that ETA terrorism that killed several of my friends and that poor councilor, Manuel Zamarreño, who one day, in a radio conversation with me, said to me: “I know that I will be killed, like my predecessor, but I feel obliged to accept to succeed him in the council”. A week later they killed him. Now, twenty years later, the trial against the alleged murderers is being held.
The Process has nothing to do with terrorism
What do these episodes have to do with the Process? Desire to misrepresent everything, in a political fight about whether or not amnesty is constitutional, whether it should be possible or not, and this fight has involved the interlocutory of a particularly pugnacious judge who wanted to see terrorism where – I know, I’ve talked to a lot of people about it – a majority of specialists think that, except for circumstances we don’t know, there isn’t one. Now they just need to say it in public, but this, of course, involves certain risks in a scenario like the current one.
I know that saying that Puigdemont is not, in my opinion, a terrorist, not even a low-level one, will cost me, as it costs me, in other areas, to say that I find it difficult to make constitutional this amnesty that – now – the government wants to pass as such. Or as it is worth it for me to state, depending on which areas, that not every alliance, not every pact, is worth staying on the red carpet of power. We, those of us who have to comment, live with more difficulty every day, in a delicate balance, which can leave you without television talk shows or without the presence of a minister or an opposition leader, at a lunch after you’ve said or written unpleasant things. But hey, I guess that’s what being a journalist is: daring to deny the terrorist character of a rebel, guilty in my opinion of several other things, and at the same time daring to claim that the government crosses too many red lines in its agreements with Waterloo.
Coexistence is possible
I believe, I have always believed, in rapprochement, coexistence and fraternity between the existing Catalonias and the existing Spains. And this means countermeasures by both sides, trying not to leave dead or wounded on the battlefield of the negotiation. I think that, in this case, the government of Pedro Sánchez – the ministers avoid thorough contact with journalists, lacking coherent explanations on some issues where today they have one opinion and yesterday it was another – is leaving quite a few fissures , I would like to believe that just to achieve this normalization of relations with Catalonia, a normalization that has not yet arrived and that involves taking steps that cause waves of anger in other political sectors.
At this time, I would not be able to assure if Sánchez is doing well, badly or regularly. I guess it will depend on the political or social sector that judges it. There’s probably a little bit of everything. But if I dare to say that the opposition is not knowing how to channel some of the political problems – territorial ones are always – more acute that Spain has raised. And of course, I affirm with full conviction that terrorism has little or nothing to do with this contention, no matter how some judge and his followers put it. We continue, as we have for a decade, walking along a false path, which I suppose ends in quicksand.
