By Ada Colau [1]

Talking so much about the train crash on conditional or in the future, it is hard to assimilate that today is the day.
A decade of neglect of the Popular Party in Catalonia ends up today with the approval of the Senate of Article 155.
Rajoy has presented it among the applause of his own, to the shame of all those who respect dignity and democracy.

Did they applaud their failure?

Those who have been unable to propose any solution, unable to listen and to govern for all, today enact the blow to democracy with the annihilation of Catalan self-government.

In the same track, a smaller train, the one of the independence parties, has advanced without brakes, with kamikaze haste (we are in a hurry), after a mistakenly interpreting the elections of 27/9. A speed imposed by partisan interests, in a flight forward that is made concrete today with a Declaration of Independence made in the name of Catalonia, but which does not have the majority support of the Catalans.

We will not tire of repeating it: it is a mistake to give up 80% in favour of a referendum agreed, by a 48% in favour of independence.

We have been for many, many, many years warning of the danger and, in recent weeks, working in public and in private to avoid this shock. We are the majority, in Catalonia and in Spain, who wanted machines to stop, to impose dialogue, wisdom and an agreed solution.

We will always be in time to return to the dialogue. Whatever happens, we will not stop asking for it. But now we have to defend Catalan institutions, fight to preserve the social cohesion and prosperity of Barcelona and Catalonia. We will be with the people, fighting so that their rights are not violated. Healing the wounds that all this is causing, and appealing to the people of the rest of the state so that we fight together because this democracy that is in danger today is also theirs. Nor will we stop asking the PSOE / PSC to stop supporting those applauding today, or it will be impossible for them to be part of any credible and exciting alternative.

I am clear where I will be: involved in the construction of new scenarios of self-government that give us more democracy, not less. That includes working to kick out the PP, which today, with its cruel applause, celebrated the pain of an entire people. But also, or above all, work to feminize politics, to make empathy a habitual practice that allows us to build great consensus in which our diversity is our greatest treasure.

Not in my name: neither 155 nor DUI. [Unilateral Declaration of Independence]

1. Barcelona Mayor, for the platform Barcelona in Common