The vote of confidence: "The final screen"

In the course of the vote of confidence, Puigdemont promised a referendum. That is the headline. Seen this way, it's not entirely wrong to say that promising a referendum is like riding an exercise bike. Or like going around and around in a hamster wheel. Because 9-N was not a referendum, but it looked like one. And 27-S was presented as a referendum and in fact was interpreted as such ("yes"/"no") on election night, even by those who said that it was only a regional election. One of those who spoke of this hamster wheel this morning, when the session resumed in Parliament, was Ciudadanos leader Inés Arrimadas. And the president answered her, and her rebuttal will be the one moment of this debate that we will hold on to because, among other things, they have an appointment for one year from now.

Arrimadas says that in a year’s time we'll know who is hunting “pokemons”, who is doing virtual politics, when we know whether or not a referendum was held. Others have said that with the promise of a consultation, Puigdemont is merely trying to gain time. They are forgetting two things, in my point of view. The first is that, in contrast to 9-N or before 27-S, there is now a Parliamentary majority that has a democratic mandate to make Catalonia an independent country. This is the big difference between the position Mas found himself in and Puigdemont's current position. Puigdemont has a mandate and has proposed bringing it to conclusion as it is done with any project in a democracy: by hearing the people.

The second thing that those of the hamster wheel —or those who talk of gaining time— are forgetting is that Puigdemont has supported Catalan independence his entire life, and that he is looking forward to returning home and working in media and that —from what we have seen these past nine months and for what we have been able to check by digging into his biography— he is not a person who takes his convictions lightly. He became president under desperate conditions, and against the clock, for achieving independence, not to pedal on an exercise bike or prolong his stay at the president’s official residence in Barcelona’s Sant Jaume square. His warning to the CUP yesterday is a case in point: "To those who are thinking of giving me a vote of confidence but will not approve the budget: don’t bother giving me your confidence ... we'll go to elections without wasting any more time".

Does this mean that there will be a referendum? Or that it is, in fact, what Arrimadas referred to as the "neverendum"?

Look, as it stands now, we have all reached a point of no return. Nobody knows how this will end up. And if think objectively, I also have my doubts. Not about Puigdemont's will, which I believe in, but rather whether or not Spain will suspend Catalonia's autonomy, or whether the Parliament will approve the law of transitoriness. Because what I also think is that in this clean proposal from Puigdemont there is a bit of what Toni Soler referred to in his analysis: that Puigdemont is seeking conflict to force dialogue. That there is only a remote possibility of dialogue with Spain if you are stubborn with the conflict. Democratically and peacefully stubborn. But if there is conflict, there is always an amber light. Indeed, Puigdemont said yesterday that if you are one of those who comes out every 11-S, he is coming for you: "I will not fail, but I cannot do anything without an unbroken majority in Parliament and without people who are mobilized". The months to come, then, will be intense and predictably harsh.

Arrimadas warned against frustrated expectations, and it's true --this is a risk. But worse than frustrated expectations is the frustration with reality, with the present. More than frustration, the collapse of the reality of a Catalonia with a political structure that has not been able to respond to the dynamism and needs of its society, the idea that "we have tiles and load-bearing walls, but we are missing a roof", we don't have a complete structure. From this point of view, it would be frustrating not to attempt a change.

Today Puigdemont has gained the confidence of Parliament, but for all this to come to fruition, it's critical for everyone to work as well as they can, and win the trust of ourselves to make all the effort of the past few years a reality that is not virtual.