The years of the process were very disconcerting. Not so much because an important part of Catalan society embraced independence, but because the way in which that goal was intended to be achieved oscillated between grotesque 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 enthusiastically signed up. To remember some curious passages, we will cite that floral offering called by the CDR of Terrassa in front of a bollard that the Mossos had to tear down two years before to leave after a search by the Unipost company in search of the 1-O ballots. The tribute may seem like a joke, but it has its downside in the fact that former councilor Lluís Puig is accused of embezzlement, supposedly for ordering census cards from that company for the referendum. The Supreme Court recognized that the payments were not made, although Puig remains indicted.
The process had two faces. One of strong political and social tension. Another certainly picturesque one. Until 2017, in general terms, the second predominated. For example, a municipality in Girona, Bàscara, declared itself a “liberated territory” and “border crossings” were installed, including posters on the façade of the town hall welcoming the Catalan republic. The concept of the “smile revolution” gave rise to all kinds of popular voluntary actions that spread through social networks, such as a website where you could make a fake Catalan ID card.
But serious events also occurred, especially after the summer of 2017, with the approval of the disconnection laws in Parliament, which sought to violate legality. According to documents collected by the Civil Guard at the T-Systems company, CESICAT, Catalonia's cybersecurity agency, also tried to launch a Catalan DNI, this time for real. And pro-independence leaders went to Egara, headquarters of the Mossos, with the frustrated intention of collecting information from police databases to prepare the 1-O census. Neither on that nor on other occasions, the independence leaders managed to get the Mossos leadership to adhere to their claims.
The CDRs began to act, groups of activists who began by blocking roads and who ended up leading the violent riots in Via Laietana in 2019. But in this time the judges have not identified a clear political leadership of these groups. With the purpose of investigating them, the CNI requested judicial authorization to spy on twenty leaders of ERC, Carles Puigdemont's entourage, the CUP, the ANC and Òmnium and even the moderate PDCat. It is not known what they managed to find out about the CDR, although with such a wide range of listening, a complete map of the state of the independence movement could be drawn.
To carry out these espionage, the CNI requested judicial authorization with the argument that it suspected that Pere Aragonès “directed” the CDR, despite the fact that the then vice president of the Generalitat was very critical of the president, Quim Torra, precisely because of his public statements. in favor of those groups. Considering Aragonès the head of the CDR only shows that it took time for the secret services to catch up on who was who in the independence movement. Concentrated for years on ETA, then on jihadist terrorism and even on protecting the Crown from scandals, the CNI turned to Catalonia well into the process. Paradoxically, it was Pedro Sánchez who changed the National Defense Directive when he arrived at Moncloa in 2018 to place the Catalan independence movement as a priority for the CNI. And it was precisely at that time that the Center requested permission to spy on leaders like Aragonès.
After the sentencing 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 independence parties created it to control the protests. In the same way that the masses were instigated to go to the El Prat airport, the police who were deployed there saw how the protesters received instructions at a certain moment to retreat. But in the 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 group. During these years he has not realized that the tourist who died of a heart attack at the airport was a collateral victim of an attack. Not only that. He has reviewed the reports from the Civil Guard and has discovered unexpectedly that the Tsunami intended to “act at the pace of the King's entourage.” All of this based on messages from a police officer nicknamed “xuxu rondinaire” in which this character gave the activists very basic information about a royal visit in July 2020 that never took place.
The "xuxu rondinaire" meets the popular aspect of the process. At that time, the independence movement was beginning to show frustration and fatigue. The "rondinaire" (cascarrabias) stood out almost as a post-process evolution of the "engaged Catalan". (And we can assume that "xuxu" refers to the sweet "xuixo", which refers to Gerund origins).
In short, several investigations have remained suspicious, among other things due to the intrinsic difficulty in discerning responsibilities for actions that had broad popular support. Not everything was innocent smiles and colorful demonstrations, as the independence movement now claims, but neither did half of Catalonia allow itself to be seduced by a terrorist gang, as some judges and quite a few politicians try to make us believe.
