It had been a long time since Catalan independence supporters displayed their strength in a public demonstration like the one experienced last Thursday at Camp Nou. The widespread outrage caused by an arbitrary arrest in Elx of a young Barça fan, including unnecessary aggression, led to the Barça stadium filling with estelada flags. The reason for the arrest of the 17-year-old was precisely that he was carrying this type of independence flag.
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I completely agree with the article Lola García wrote
yesterday in this same section, and I believe the tribute to the Barça players who won the World Cup with Spain should not have been suspended, but I want to focus on the natural reaction of many Barça supporters who
showed their support for the estelada and their outrage at the police action.
Thursday was a clear demonstration, for those who want to see it, that Catalan independence may be in crisis, disoriented, and demoralized, but it is not dead. One thing is that the procés has been a failure for its supporters and, above all, for Catalonia as a whole, and another is that the identity feeling of thousands of Catalans has magically disappeared. On the contrary, it is very much alive.
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It only takes a spark to ignite it again. The case involving the young Barça supporter will have the judicial process it requires, and this controversy does not seem likely to last forever, unless there is an attempt to once again prevent any citizen’s freedom of expression when displaying their flags.
The protest at Camp Nou is, however, a clear sign of what could happen in the future in Catalonia if public authorities do not act with intelligence and skill to avoid generating more conflicts. The normalization process that Catalonia has been undergoing in recent years is possibly one of the best achievements of Pedro Sánchez’s much-debated governments. What has been so hard to rebuild can be broken very easily.
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