Europe is our goal, not our mum

Many Catalans still fancy a good-hearted saver that will, in one way or another, help Catalonia to become an independent state or whatever we decide we want to be in the future.

Not so many years ago, many –and this includes myself- thought that joining the European Union would be the key to get past the limitations of the Spanish autonomic system. Quite a few years have passed and the reality is that the Europe of the peoples we dreamed about has never existed. The only Europe out there is that built from and for its member states. It is about time for Catalans to realise that Europe won’t solve what we haven’t been able to solve in hundreds of years, and even less if it implies any political trouble for any of its member states.

We certainly have to internationalize the Catalan reality and promote the Catalan identity around the world in the same way any other nation does. But that doesn’t mean we have to play the role of a poor child begging for a fairer consideration, which is exactly the image we project  when we grumble about all the grievances derived from being part of Spain. The responsibility is only on our side, and though we have to seek the complicity of as many foreign countries as we can,  it is  us who will have to take each and every step of our path towards independence.