<nettime> Ada Colau's Statement on Art. 155 / Unilateral Indpendence

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Ada Colau Ballano
27.10. at 5:57am

After talking about a train crash in the conditional or future tense
for so long, it's difficult to take on the fact that today it has
happened.

A decade of PP carelessness with Catalonia has culminated with the
adoption of article 155 by the Senate today. Rajoy presented the
motion to the applause of his party and to the shame of all of us who
respect dignity and democracy.

Were they applauding his failure?

Those who have been incapable of proposing a single solution,
incapable of listening or of governing for all, have enacted a
coup against democracy today with the annihilation of Catalan
self-government. On the same track, in the other direction, the
pro-independence parties are in their, smaller train with no breaks,
advancing at a kamikazi pace (“now is the moment”,
we're in a hurry”), after t= heir mistaken reading of the
results of the Catalan elections. Their speed has been the result of
partisan interests, a headlong dash which has been consumated today
with a Declaration of Independence in the name of Catalonia that
doesn't have the support of a majority of Catalans.

We won't tire of repeating it: it's a mistake to rennounce the
80% in favour of a negotiated referendum for the 48% in favour of
independence.

Many of us have been warning of this danger for years and, over recent
weeks, working in public and in private to avoid this collision. We're
a majority, in Catalonia and in Spain, who want a halt to the trains
and for dialogue, common sense and an agreed solution to take hold.

There's always time to turn to dialogue. Whatever happens, we won't
cease to demand it. But now our task is to defend Catalan institutions
and to fight to maintain the social cohesion and prosperity of
Barcelona and Catalonia. We'll be with the people, struggling to make
sure that their rights are not violated. Healing the wounds that all
of this has caused and calling on people in the rest of the country
to fight with us, because the democracy that is at risk today is
theirs too. We will also continue to call on the Socialist Party to
stop supporting those who have applauded Rajoy today, otherwise it
will be impossible for them to be part of any credible or inspiring
alternative.

I know where I'll be: involved in the construction of new forms of
self-government that give us more democracy, not less. That includes
working to kick out the PP which, with its cruel applause today, has
celebrated the pain of a people. But also, above all, I'll be working
to feminize politics so that empathy becomes an everyday practice
that allows us to build broad consensuses through which diversity can
become our greatest treasure.

Nor Article 155 nor Unilateral Declaration of Independence: not in my name.



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