The years of the process were very confusing. Not so much because an important part of Catalan society embraced independence, but because the way in which it was intended to reach that milestone oscillated between shocking episodes and others that bordered on the precipice.
In the years of independence euphoria there were moments of popular exaltation to which part of society signed up with enthusiasm. To recall some curious passages, we will mention that floral offering called by the CDR of Terrassa in front of a pylon that the Mossos had to uproot two years earlier to get out after a search of the Unipost company in search of ballot papers 1- O. The tribute may seem like a joke, but it has its reverse in the fact that former councilor Lluís Puig is accused of embezzlement, allegedly for ordering census cards from that company for the referendum. The Supreme Court recognized that the payments were not made, although Puig remains on trial.
The process had two sides. One of strong political and social tension. Another certainly picturesque. Until 2017, in general terms, the second predominated. For example, a municipality in Girona, Bàscara, declared itself “liberated territory” and “border crossings” were installed, including posters on the facade of the town hall welcoming the Catalan republic. The concept of the “revolution of smiles” gave rise to all kinds of voluntary popular actions that spread through social networks, such as that of a website on which to manufacture a false Catalan ID card.
But there were also serious events, especially after the summer of 2017, with the approval of the disconnection laws in Parliament, which sought to violate legality. According to documents obtained by the Civil Guard from the T-Systems company, CESICAT, Catalonia’s cyber security agency, also tried to launch a Catalan ID, this time for real. And pro-independence leaders went to Egara, headquarters of the Mossos, with the intention, frustrated, of collecting information from police databases to prepare the 1-O census. Neither on this nor on other occasions, the pro-independence leaders did not go get the top of the Mossos to adhere to their demands.
The CDRs began their activity, groups of activists who started by blocking roads and who ended up starring in the violent riots in Via Laietana in 2019. But in this time the judges have not identified a clear political leadership of those groups. In order to investigate them, the CNI requested judicial authorization to spy on twenty ERC leaders, Carles Puigdemont’s entourage, the CUP, the ANC and Òmnium and even moderate PDCat. It is not known what they managed to get clear about the CDRs, although with such a range of intelligence it was possible to draw a complete map of the state of independence.
To carry out that espionage, the CNI requested judicial authorization with the argument that it suspected that Pere Aragonès was “directing” the CDRs, despite the fact that the then vice-president of the Generalitat was very critical of the president, Quim Torra, precisely because of his public demonstrations in favor of those groups. Considering Aragonès as the head of the CDR is only evidence that it took time for the secret services to catch up on who was who in independence. Concentrated for years on ETA, then on jihadist terrorism and even on protecting the Crown from scandals, the CNI overturned Catalonia when the process was already well advanced. Paradoxically, it was Pedro Sánchez who changed the National Defense Directive when he arrived in Moncloa in 2018 to place Catalan independence as a priority for the CNI. And it was right at that time when the Center asked for permission to spy on leaders like Aragonès.
After the judgment of the process, when the Supreme Court condemns its leaders, the Democratic Tsunami arises. From the first moment it was known that leaders of the pro-independence parties created it to control the protests. In the same way that the mass was instigated to go to El Prat airport, the police who were deployed there checked how the demonstrators received instructions at a certain moment to retreat. But in these last five years, judicial investigations have not been conclusive about the people who were in charge of the Tsunami.
It is now, when an amnesty law is about to be approved, that judge Manuel García-Castellón suspects that Puigdemont was not the leader of an independence movement, but of a terrorist band. During these years it has not been realized that the tourist who died of a heart attack at the airport was a collateral victim of an attack. Not only that. The reports of the Civil Guard have been reviewed and unexpectedly discovered that the Tsunami intended to “act in the footsteps of the King’s entourage”. All this based on messages from a policeman called “xuxu rondinaire” in which this character passed on to the activists very basic information about a real visit in July 2020 that did not take place.
That of the “xuxu rondinaire” connects with the popular side of the process. At that time, the independence movement was beginning to show frustration and fatigue. The “rondinaire” emerged almost as a post-process evolution of the “engaged Catalan”. (And we can assume that “xuxu” refers to the “xuxu” which refers to Girona origins).
In short, several investigations have been suspect, among other things due to the intrinsic difficulty in discerning responsibility for actions that had broad popular support. It wasn’t all innocent smiles and colorful demonstrations, as independenceism now claims, but neither was half of Catalonia seduced by a terrorist band, as some judges and not a few politicians try to make us believe.