The Cercle d'Economia as a forum for Catalan, democratic and European thought does not have as a priority, commentary on the current situation. But faced with the extraordinarily serious events we have suffered over the last week, the Cercle does not want, and cannot avoid its responsibilities: it strongly condemns the violence experienced in the streets of Barcelona and in Catalonia as a whole, and it does so without ambiguity and without gradation.
Now is the time for our institutions - The Generalitat, The Parliament of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council - and the associated parties to leave aside their legitimate interests. We must work in a coordinated way with one objective: to banish the violent acts of our towns and cities. Not focusing on this would be a serious irresponsibility, improper of a European liberal democracy.
The time will come to hold each other accountable. Above all, the time will come to formulate and defend proposals to solve a crisis that has an indisputable political root. For some time, the Cercle has proposed alternatives to fit Catalonia with the whole of Spain, reinforcing self-government and improving its financing model.
But now the political urgency is another. Now we must stop the violence. Because through violence it is impossible for anything to grow, and violence makes it impossible to share a negotiating table. It is not the problem of an election or a government. We are playing with the future of a generation.
