When it comes to symbols, the argument exceeds the scope of reason and intelligence. It’s very difficult to understand from an external point of view what is going on in many town councils around Catalonia. Many Catalans don’t feel the Spanish flag is their own flag, so they remove it from the Ajuntament building, to leave only the Catalan Senyera and the European flag. Spanish authorities feel that this is an attack on the identity and integrity of the state, and force the local representatives to put the missing flag back. Some town councils argue that the flag was sent to the laundry and never made it back, and on several occasions the battle ends in front of a judge.
In Sant Pol de Mar, as in other cities and towns, the people demonstrate against this imposition, because they identify only the Senyera as their flag, and they even use a ladder to climb and remove the Spanish flag. So the police have to come and put it back again.
It’s a funny situation somehow, but it’s another example of the rising tension between Catalonia and Spain. Divorce is getting closer by the minute.
Published in Catalonia Today magazine, April 2012
