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None of the Catalan nationalist leaders has condemned the violence yet

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The independentistas close their eyes and ears before the avalanche of proof and confessions
Voces Layetanas
José A. Ruiz 27/09/2019 1815
When a Civil Guard operation a few days ago arrested seven members of a CDR for allegedly preparing explosives to attack during the next few days, a completely disproportionate reaction took place in the independence ranks. Nationalism sprang to ensure that the entire movement was "radically democratic", that everything was a "state assembly" and that the detainees were also "political prisoners".
The viscerality of such a reaction was possibly the result of an instinctive, urgent denial, but also of a huge lack of strategy.
Because what's unlikely is that when the police were still studying evidence and putting conditionals in all their reports ("allegedly" organizing, "precursors" of exploxives, "potential" attacks) nationalism already had as absolute certainty the innocence of the defendants and the guilt of the law enforcers.
What the nationalist hierarchs didn't expect (and they should) is that the Civil Guard was not acting for political opportunism, but for a good reason, and not based on mere indications, but after two years of investigation, after having collected numerous evidence and only before the imminence of a possible serious attack.
And the final blow: Two of the detainees have admitted everything. That's it. Two members of the ERT or Equip Tàctic de Resposta (Tactical Response Team, an even more violent command within the CDR) have rejected the assistance of the independence organization Alert Solidària (which is the one that usually defends the interests of the nationalist defendants) and have preferred to ask for a lawyer and explain everything.
I'll not detail all the facts here because they're not the subject of this article. It's enough to know that they admitted to buying the precursor materials, to elaborate the explosives, to detonate test bombs in several abandoned locations and to devise an attack plan against Catalan infrastructures. However, the detainees said "that was not terrorism" because "they didn't intend to kill people".
There was no excuse. The leaders of nationalism needed to rectify. They had to alter their position and say something like "These aren't our CDRs", "we'll never cover violence" or any other marketing campaign that their advertisers write to them.
But they didn't.
All, I insist, all leaders of all nationalist parties have closed ranks around the accused. President Quim Torra himself defines them as "citizens committed to his country" although the Generalitat is accusing them of disturbances, violence and robbery for previous causes. Once again, no one seems to want to realize that two of the defendants have admitted everything without giving time to nationalist leaders to be able to make a story of coercion or torture (unthinkable for almost anyone, but a non-disposable argument for nationalism by that possibly have not yet resorted due to lack of time or imagination).
And many of us think "maybe in the next few days ...". But days go by. TV3, the nationalist television, has broadcast in "Poland", its reference humor program, an elaborate sketch in which the Civil Guard enters the lair of the CDR and, finding no evidence, invents them and places them in the scene. Civil Guard agents, whom they portray as simple and clumsy, end up dead by causing a gas explosion with their carelessness. This is the humor of nationalist television, as when they portray the leaders of Ciudadanos as Nazis or show Casado and Abascal in their underwear because "they have come out from Franco's closet", the updated version of what the real Nazis did when they put to the Jews a hat and made them parade through the streets so that the children laugh at them. Undissimulated.
And time goes on. The Civil Guard has videos of the members of the ERT command detonating explosives in the open air. The documentation is corroborated by the detainees. They admit to having planned to attack the electrical infrastructure. Not a week ago since the arrests, and denying the evidence is now little less than crazy.
But the nationalist leaders continue to tear their clothes before the slightest possibility of linking "Independentism" with violence. "How dare you?" they scream, outraged. "It's intolerable!" And they demand that the Civil Guard be expelled from Catalonia. For having prevented an attack? Without the state security forces the history of Catalonia would be very different. Would the Mossos have stopped the CDRs? Would they have investigated Pujol or the plot of 3%? All those cases would remain hidden and active.
And the days keep passing. Nationalist gatherings timidly begin to mention that, perhaps, there are "two stories": that of the police and that of their leaders. The level of the grievances reported begins to decrease and the message already swings from the "state assembly" to the "despissing the presumption of innocence", the same presumption that they despise when accusing the state for assembly. Nationalists have never said "alleged assembly." However the parties remain unalterable as concrete. And the distance between their story and the facts is already so great ..
What will the rest of Europe think of this situation? What will think those who gave support and coverage to nationalism really believing their pacifist message?
What will the non-violent nationalists think (I know they are the majority) who voted for them? What opinion will the "gent de pau" (people of peace) have now?
Finally some independence leader must admit that the king is naked. Who will be the first? Because it's clear that others will jump around his neck. The risk for the first to admit reality and condemn it is tremendous. Maybe Junqueras? The republican "martyr" remains silent. Will he add to the nonsense or will deepen its personification of "Mandela nationalist" and give an effect blow?
TIC Tac. Time doesn't stop.

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