Matthew Campbell, Barcelona
November 3 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times
Barcelona has seen widespread anti-Madrid protestsALEJANDRO GARCIAFor a man sentenced to nine years in prison for a political crime, Jordi Cuixart, one of the figureheads of Catalonia’s separatist movement, seems in remarkably good spirits.
When I visited him yesterday in the Lledoners penitentiary centre, about 40 miles from Barcelona, he launched into an animated speech about the benefits of yoga, pottery and meditation for maintaining a positive frame of mind.
“If ever I’m feeling a bit down, I remember how many of the world’s political prisoners are forced to endure much worse conditions than us,” he told me through a telephone on the other side of a glass screen.
“We can’t complain, even if we are here despite being innocent of any crime.”
Oriol Junqueras, the former vice- president of Catalonia, waved at us from a neighbouring visitor room. He was sentenced to 13 years — and a 13-year ban on holding public office.
Their followers are not so laid back. Since Cuixart, 44, and eight other pro- independence figures were sentenced to 100 years between them by a court in Madrid on October 14, the region has erupted in violent protest.
Jordi Cuixart and eight other pro-independence figures were sentenced to 100 years between themMATTHIAS OESTERLE
For half of Catalonia’s polarised population, the prisoners are martyrs. But for the government in Madrid they are the cause of Spain’s worst crisis in decades. Their punishment has turned the conflict into the focus of Spain’s fourth general election in four years.
Cuixart has little hope that the election next Sunday will bring peace between Barcelona and Madrid. He also fears it is unlikely to end the political limbo in which Spain has languished since the Socialists emerged as the most popular party in the April election — but without enough seats to form a government.
“Spain is a democracy, of course, but is looking quite totalitarian in its recent behaviour,” said Cuixart.
“I’ve met a murderer in here serving a nine-year sentence, just like me.”
Cuixart tries to look on the bright side, helped by the recent birth of a second son, Cami, which means “way” or “path” in Catalan. He was allowed out of prison for six hours to attend the birth in the early hours of September 23.
“They got me to the hospital just in time. Txell, my wife, said ‘hold my hand’ and I squeezed it hard. Ten minutes later Cami was born,” he said.
Unlike the other separatist prisoners, Cuixart is not a politician and had played no role in the declaration of independence in 2017.
However, he helped to organise demonstrations against Madrid, as a businessman and a member of the board of Omnium Cultural. This organisation was created in the 1960s to promote the Catalan language, which was banned under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
For half of Catalonia’s polarised population, the prisoners are martyrs. But for the government in Madrid they are the cause of Spain’s worst crisis in decades. Their punishment has turned the conflict into the focus of Spain’s fourth general election in four years.
Cuixart has little hope that the election next Sunday will bring peace between Barcelona and Madrid. He also fears it is unlikely to end the political limbo in which Spain has languished since the Socialists emerged as the most popular party in the April election — but without enough seats to form a government.
“Spain is a democracy, of course, but is looking quite totalitarian in its recent behaviour,” said Cuixart.
“I’ve met a murderer in here serving a nine-year sentence, just like me.”
Cuixart tries to look on the bright side, helped by the recent birth of a second son, Cami, which means “way” or “path” in Catalan. He was allowed out of prison for six hours to attend the birth in the early hours of September 23.
“They got me to the hospital just in time. Txell, my wife, said ‘hold my hand’ and I squeezed it hard. Ten minutes later Cami was born,” he said.
Unlike the other separatist prisoners, Cuixart is not a politician and had played no role in the declaration of independence in 2017.
However, he helped to organise demonstrations against Madrid, as a businessman and a member of the board of Omnium Cultural. This organisation was created in the 1960s to promote the Catalan language, which was banned under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Txell Bonet, Cuixart’s wife, with their son Cami, conceived in jail PERTTI PESONEN
Cuixart was jailed, pending a trial, after he and Jordi Sanchez, president of the Catalan assembly, were filmed standing on top of a police car addressing demonstrators a few days before the referendum.
They were accused of inciting protests against police, who were searching for ballot boxes and voting slips to be used in the banned independence referendum. But footage of the event clearly shows them urging the crowd to disband.
“Our first son, Amat, was only six months old when Jordi was taken off to prison. That was really difficult,” Txell, 44, told me when I visited the family’s flat in Barcelona last week.
The second baby, by contrast, was in some ways a victory over prison. “If we had decided not to have another child it would have been recognising that prison had interrupted our life,” she added, nursing Cami in her arms as Amat, now aged 2½, played on the floor.
Hard as it may be, the family has adapted to the circumstances, spending 40 minutes with Cuixart each week in a prison visitor’s room — basically a divided glass box — where he can speak to them through the phone and where they can press hands against the screen.
In the first year of his life, Amat became so used to this form of contact that when out shopping with his mother he would pat shop windows saying “papa”. A family friend, Adria Bas, said: “When I saw that, it broke my heart.”
Today the family will get a “face to face”, spending time together in the same room with Cuixart; and once a month the parents are permitted a conjugal visit, meaning access to a room with a bed. That is how Cami came into the world, “a great blessing”, as Cuixart put it.
Another joy in his life is pottery. He described having a class in the prison with Ai Weiwei, China’s dissident artist, who visited him last year and made a clay mould out of his feet: “It was what he told me about conditions faced by political prisoners in his country that made me realise how lucky we are.”
Cuixart blamed “police brutality” for provoking the recent explosion of violence on Barcelona’s streets, where several hundred people, many of them riot police, were injured. “We’ve never defended violence,” he said.
Others, however, tie the violent protests to a new generation of activists. “They’re saying if prison is where peaceful protests got our leaders, we need a new strategy,” said Vicent Partal, director of VilaWeb, an online newspaper.
“People fought back this time against the police. That’s never happened before. It’s a major change.”
Scenes of chaos in Barcelona — where protesters blocked traffic, burnt tyres and rubbish containers and occupied Barcelona airport, forcing the cancellation of more than 150 flights — have polarised sentiments.
The right, which advocates a tough stance on the rebellious region, seems set to do well in the election. The conservative Popular Party has risen in the polls, as has the ultra-nationalist Vox, the first far-right party to win seats in the national assembly since Franco died in 1975.
The Socialists seem set to win the most votes again on Sunday — but not enough to give them a majority, meaning the political stalemate may continue.
Pedro Sanchez, the party leader and prime minister, has ruled out any talks with the separatists so long as they advocate an independence referendum. Pro-independence Catalan parties in parliament might offer support but would demand an amnesty for the prisoners.
“The best solution would be an amnesty,” said Diana Riba, wife of Raul Romeva, the former Catalan foreign minister and MEP, jailed for 12 years. “We say amnesty, not pardon, because he and the others haven’t committed any crime.”
Cuixart said he is ready to spend a decade behind bars: “It’s not just a question of freeing us and saying ‘well that’s all right, everything is settled’. We want a solution. I want my sons one day to live in an independent state.
“We have to be patient. That’s what Mahatma Gandhi taught us,” he added, invoking India’s long struggle for independence from Britain as a lesson for Catalonia.
@MCinParis
Cuixart was jailed, pending a trial, after he and Jordi Sanchez, president of the Catalan assembly, were filmed standing on top of a police car addressing demonstrators a few days before the referendum.
They were accused of inciting protests against police, who were searching for ballot boxes and voting slips to be used in the banned independence referendum. But footage of the event clearly shows them urging the crowd to disband.
“Our first son, Amat, was only six months old when Jordi was taken off to prison. That was really difficult,” Txell, 44, told me when I visited the family’s flat in Barcelona last week.
The second baby, by contrast, was in some ways a victory over prison. “If we had decided not to have another child it would have been recognising that prison had interrupted our life,” she added, nursing Cami in her arms as Amat, now aged 2½, played on the floor.
Hard as it may be, the family has adapted to the circumstances, spending 40 minutes with Cuixart each week in a prison visitor’s room — basically a divided glass box — where he can speak to them through the phone and where they can press hands against the screen.
In the first year of his life, Amat became so used to this form of contact that when out shopping with his mother he would pat shop windows saying “papa”. A family friend, Adria Bas, said: “When I saw that, it broke my heart.”
Today the family will get a “face to face”, spending time together in the same room with Cuixart; and once a month the parents are permitted a conjugal visit, meaning access to a room with a bed. That is how Cami came into the world, “a great blessing”, as Cuixart put it.
Another joy in his life is pottery. He described having a class in the prison with Ai Weiwei, China’s dissident artist, who visited him last year and made a clay mould out of his feet: “It was what he told me about conditions faced by political prisoners in his country that made me realise how lucky we are.”
Cuixart blamed “police brutality” for provoking the recent explosion of violence on Barcelona’s streets, where several hundred people, many of them riot police, were injured. “We’ve never defended violence,” he said.
Others, however, tie the violent protests to a new generation of activists. “They’re saying if prison is where peaceful protests got our leaders, we need a new strategy,” said Vicent Partal, director of VilaWeb, an online newspaper.
“People fought back this time against the police. That’s never happened before. It’s a major change.”
Scenes of chaos in Barcelona — where protesters blocked traffic, burnt tyres and rubbish containers and occupied Barcelona airport, forcing the cancellation of more than 150 flights — have polarised sentiments.
The right, which advocates a tough stance on the rebellious region, seems set to do well in the election. The conservative Popular Party has risen in the polls, as has the ultra-nationalist Vox, the first far-right party to win seats in the national assembly since Franco died in 1975.
The Socialists seem set to win the most votes again on Sunday — but not enough to give them a majority, meaning the political stalemate may continue.
Pedro Sanchez, the party leader and prime minister, has ruled out any talks with the separatists so long as they advocate an independence referendum. Pro-independence Catalan parties in parliament might offer support but would demand an amnesty for the prisoners.
“The best solution would be an amnesty,” said Diana Riba, wife of Raul Romeva, the former Catalan foreign minister and MEP, jailed for 12 years. “We say amnesty, not pardon, because he and the others haven’t committed any crime.”
Cuixart said he is ready to spend a decade behind bars: “It’s not just a question of freeing us and saying ‘well that’s all right, everything is settled’. We want a solution. I want my sons one day to live in an independent state.
“We have to be patient. That’s what Mahatma Gandhi taught us,” he added, invoking India’s long struggle for independence from Britain as a lesson for Catalonia.
@MCinParis
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