The Spanish colleague Ramón was the first to say it: Catalonia had become a madhouse. In 2013, he published a book with precisely this title: The Catalan asylum (The sphere of books).
I laughed a lot while reading it even though it was in there too. “Xavier Rius is a troublemaker who likes nothing more than to sow tares in the Catalan oasis,” he said.
I remember I interviewed him and I guess I said to him: “Ramon, how are you?”. At that time, I still believed that we, the Catalans, were a transversal, mature and democratic people. The year was 2013. The process had not yet reached its peak.
But time has proven him right. He even failed in his predictions.
The second, Ignacio Vidal-Folch who, in an article in The country in December 2014, coined this expression about “trainloads of psychiatrists”. It wasn’t a sentence, it was an exact x-ray.
The journalist wondered: “How did we get here?“. And he resorted to an assertion by Julio Caro Baroja: “The only thing I can think of is sending trains full of psychiatrists there”.
The third, even though he did not come from a journalistic background, was the state attorney general, Jose Manuel Mazawho on September 2011 said there was “thousands of Catalan citizens kidnapped”.
When I heard it, I also thought, “How’s that going?” But he was always right. Furthermore, he said this because no one was thinking about the personal consequences. Here, people were euphoric. He even levitated.
“They convince them not to worry, that it’s legal and it has all the legal benefits. No, no, no! “It’s a crime and it’s illegal and every citizen who goes to vote should know that,” he added.
These lines serve as a tribute to him because he died suddenly a month later in Argentina during an official trip. The independence movement was happy. I am not going to reproduce, so as not to offend sensitivities, some of the things that were said then.
All this concerns the latest controversy in Catalonia, at least in Catalonia independent. On Sunday, the President of the Generalitat decided to visit a Jaén olive oil fair located in Sabadell (Barcelona). Illa even promoted it in X and alluded to the “close bond” between Catalans and Andalusians.
It must be said that the mayor of this city, Marta Farrés, is a socialist. And the president of the Provincial Council of Jaén, Paco Reyes too. But how the independentists got away with it!
It was an affront, a mortal sin, a high betrayal. Promote Andalusian oil in Catalonia! What did we think! Almost everyone jumped.
The game was opened by the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, who said that Salvador Illa was more concerned with “pleasing Spain and the PSOE” than pleasing Catalan farmers.
Former councilor Cléries deplored “what we had left to see”. Parliament spokesperson Mònica Sales proposed the creation of a Catalan Petroleum Institute. And Senator Eduard Pujol, better known as the one with the scootersaid: “tell me what oil you are defending, and I will tell you what country you are defending.”
Those of the ERC are not far behind even if, in certain cases, they are more cautious. Perhaps because of the government’s pact with the PSC. Former territorial councilor Juli Fernández, who was only eight months old, limited himself to recalling the designations of origin of Catalan oils. On the other hand, his former government colleague David Mascort, of Agriculture, complained: “Are we really dedicated to this?”
Even TV3 has spoken out in favor of Catalan oil, which it considers “the best in the world”, as Xavier Graset clarified in his show. Graset was also present at the Puigdemont rally in Perpignan. And not as a journalist, but as a fan.
The Catalan madhouse that Ramón de España called it is back.
