Online definition of a very topical term in politics: “Troll (in English, troll, inspired by the evil dwarves of Norse mythology), in internet slang, is someone who tries to provoke others from the ‘anonymous, making messages that try to stir up emotions in an online community. He usually does this to get a reaction from other users or to cause trouble, or otherwise disrupt the normal conversation in a discussion topic by getting the users themselves to get angry and confront each other” .
A few days ago the president of the Generalitat, little in this role and too much in that of ERC candidate, said that he would go to the Senate to “troll” (to troll) with the PP people. Yesterday the appointment arrived and, this time to the satisfaction of a majority of Catalans, he disappointed the expectations that he himself had unnecessarily inflated.
He did not act as a troll, as, on the other hand, he was also not seen as acceptable by a personality like that of Aragonès, whom no one in Madrid has ever seen in the context of upheavals (and even less trolling), not even only when a part of independence asked him to stand up to the PSOE’s strategy focused on anesthetizing the process towards independence.
But, above all, Aragonès did not act as a troll because, yes, without a doubt, it would not have belonged to the dignity or the institutional role that corresponds to a president of the Generalitat. A president is not a troublemaker, and even less so (because he doesn’t need to be) in front of professional provocateurs like his PP gentlemen when they are in opposition. Aragonès is not an anonymous character either, but the 132nd name on a list of presidents who are at the same time a historical thread that claims the highest executive institution of Catalan self-government. And it’s not on his salary that he wants to cause problems or make people angry or confront each other. All this, due to the dignity of the position, did not correspond and did not happen. So why create the expectation?
The group Mishima has an album entitled L’ansia que cura that may well partially answer this question. That these elections are political life or death for many of the candidates who run for them is shown, in the case of Aragonès, by the anxiety (which does not cure) that since he announced the elections describes the president, with a hyperactivity proposition that contrasts with the discreet profile that, by vocation or by strategy, he had assumed since he was invested and until now.
Jéssica Albiach, of the commons, says that Aragonès has spoken more about amnesty and the referendum in three weeks as a candidate than in three years as president. It is certainly not quite like that, despite the fact that ERC certainly agreed not to negotiate this with the PSOE at the dialogue table, which was their big bet. In any case, this is for sure, if after the gestural and verbal pyrotechnics of the campaign Aragonès repeats as president, everyone senses that he would remain more like who he was a month ago than like he is now. And this is not cured with a month of campaigning, no matter how superlative it is.
