THE scene outside the Catalan parliament was tense but strangely calm. As people waited in the sun for a decision from the Madrid or Catalan parliament (or both) there was plenty of time for conversation.
I spoke to a young German-Croatian man standing beside me at an outer cordon frustratingly far from the hundreds of thousands of flag and banner-waving locals clumped in the leafy park by the parliament building.
He explained protesters like him were not actually trying to get any closer – there had to be layers of people in a bid to slow down any police action should Madrid trigger Article 155 that would enable direct rule of Catalonian public services.
Vans of the local Mossos police were lined up nearby. During the October 1 referendum they mostly protected polling stations and local people from the brutality of the national Spanish police. But, since command of Mossos could soon be taken over by Madrid, protesters weren’t sure if their allegiance was about to change.
One couple sitting beside a stack of neatly smoothed “Liberty” posters explained they had picked up all the posters dropped on the street, saying: “We want to show how much we care for our city – even in the midst of this chaos.”
Hearing me speak English, a local professor of constitutional law, Josep Capdeferro, came up to talk. He and the surrounding crowd were delighted when I showed them the new website of Scotland’s Catalan Defence Committee and a picture of the world’s newest flag, the #Scotalan, taken the previous night by its young owner, Nuala Doyle.
Josep said: “We feel very alone. Will anyone recognise our new state? We don’t know. But other small nations should realise this affects far more than just Spain.”
According to Josep, the Catalan indy movement, Omnium Cultural, has helped organise protesters rather than political parties. Their organising nous is something the Scottish Independence Convention could learn from. And Josep readily offered to share his house with any Scots planning to come over and support the Catalans. “We will feed them too!”
As I left, everyone in the little group plugged their earphones back in and resumed the patient task of waiting for history to happen.
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