''Nightmare in Barcelona'' Javier Cercas is a writer and the author of Soldiers of Salamis.

''It bears repeating once again, in the hope that by sheer repetition we will finally come to terms with it: Joaquim Torra, the brand new premier of Catalonia, is an admirer of Estat Català, a fascist or para-fascist and secessionist party that set up violent militias in the 1930s with a view to armed conflict; he is also an enthusiastic supporter of its leaders, particularly the notorious Badia brothers, two terrorists and torturers whom Torra has defined as “the best examples of separatism,” as Xavier Vidal-Folch recently noted in this newspaper..''

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