The absolute majority for the pro-independence forces renewed by the citizens of Catalonia is very good news for the country at a time when efforts need to be made to construct the Republic the citizens voted for and actively defended on 1 October. The Catalan NGO also considers it very important that the forces supporting the suspension of self-government and the occupation of the institutions of Catalonia have been defeated in terms of both votes and seats. The fraudulent and, above all, illegitimate application of article 155 by the Partido Popular after the people of Catalonia had already exercised their right to self-determination has been clearly rejected at the ballot box. The unmitigated defeat of the party controlling the Spanish government, which has obtained only three out of 135 seats, is fantastic news.
La Plataforma per la Llengua considers that the independence of Catalonia is the only way open to Catalans to achieve the linguistic rights and recognition denied them by a deeply nationalistic Spanish State. That the pro-independence forces should have obtained an absolute majority is, therefore, very positive for the future of the Catalan language.
It should also be noted that the republican forces have taken part in these illegitimate elections in a position of clear inferiority: pursued by a justice system largely lacking independence; besieged by police forces that have never been stripped of the legacy of Francoism and its arbitrary nature; silenced by the utterly party-political nationalist Spanish media; and intimidated by groups of fascists and Spanish nationalists who have enjoyed absolute impunity. It must also be remembered that, although they are not formally controlled by the Spanish authorities under article 155, the Catalan public media have suffered absolutely disproportionate censorship by the Spanish Electoral Board, which has acted with clear bias in favour of the unionist block throughout the electoral process.
The parties Junts per Catalunya, Esquerra Republicana and the CUP must be congratulated for overcoming all the obstacles and confirming, with the votes of citizens, an absolute majority that seemed very difficult to achieve. That the pro-independence movement should have defeated the unionists with candidates and leaders in exile (President Carles Puigdemont and the ministers Antoni Comín, Clara Ponsatí, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig) and others in prison (Vice-President Oriol Junqueras, the ministers Forn, Romeva, Rull, Turull, Mundó, Borràs and Bassa, along with the activists Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart) represents a heavy blow against the authoritarianism of the Spanish regime of the Borbón king Felipe, Mariano Rajoy and the oligopoly of businesses that have poured all their resources into fighting the implementation of the republic.
Meanwhile, it should also be stressed that the parties which have focused on the Catalan education system because they want to end linguistic immersion are now, and have always been, in a clear minority. Only 40 of the 135 MPs (less than 30%) belong to parties that have stood for election on programmes opposing the inclusive Catalan educational model that has been built up in Catalonia over the last few decades, with Catalan as the language of integration and the nexus between all the cultural communities in the country.
Finally, La Plataforma per la Llengua wants to publicly thank the Euro MPs who came to Catalonia to take part in the elections as members of the mission of international observers. Their commitment to Catalonia, its language and its freedoms goes back many years and deserves explicit recognition.
