The hard talk that Mr. Romeva will not face on public Catalan TV

It had to be again the BBC to to give a lesson to the public broadcasters in Spain (including Catalonia). I remember that on occasion of the terror train attacks of March 2004 in Madrid, when the Spanish public television was still saying that the Basque terrorist group ETA were the perpetrators, the BBC was already pointing towards Islamic terrorists, something that was reluctantly made official by the Spanish government some days later, the delay due to an electoral concern. Now the BBC, in the program Hard Talk, has asked just some of the right questions to the electoral leader of the pro-independence coalition in the election of September 27th in a few weeks. The interviewer asked Mr. Raul Romeva how come he was accompanied in his ballot paper by leaders of parties that are under very serious corruption accusations. He was also asked how could they promise that Catalonia would continue in the EU and the euro zone if all European officials have stated that it would not be possible or legal (as some other pro-independence leaders have accepted), at least for an initial period and until all member states accept the new candidate in case of statehood. Such an interview would not have been possible on Catalan TV because this broadcaster is a political weapon in the hands of the pro-independence regional government. No secession has ever taken place in a consolidated democracy. But it is a constant that the territories that have been closer to achieving it have regional goverments that have used their constitutional powers and resources to push for a pro-independence option, galvanizing nationalist feelings of prejudice and grievances. The fact that there are problems to be resolved does not justify that one of the richest and freest regions in Europe accepts that a democratic government uses all their public resources (especially the public media) to push for an opportunist step that is deeptly dividing the Catalan society.