The broken one: the small pin of the commons was enough to puncture the hot air balloon with which Pere Aragonès flew over his extreme parliamentary precariousness. The presidential fantasy was to exhaust the legislature with approved budgets during all fiscal years. But the difficult has turned out to be impossible. Pretending to drive a 2,500 cc motorcycle when you are sitting on the seat of a moped has its risks. Yesterday the engine seized permanently and the trick of the tuned Mobilette driving on the highway was revealed. Lots of chassis and little cubic capacity. The no to Jéssica Albiach’s budget, using the Hard Rock excuse as she could have used the tiger mosquito, sends the Catalan legislature to the cemetery. RIP.
Aragonès had no choice but to call early elections. It was democratically hygienic when you govern with 33 deputies out of 135 and the Parliament denies bread and salt to your most important law. Coincidence throughout the parliamentary arc: president, put the ballot boxes! Aragonès, fallen from the balloon, has made the right decision. Perhaps spurred by the political situation of the moment: the amnesty is a fact, Junts does not have a candidate and Salvador Illa’s socialists, with the Koldo case monopolizing the Spanish agenda, may not be in the best moment either.
The flapping of the wings of the Catalan butterfly has caused strong easterly winds in Madrid. The State budgets for 2024 are already considered lost, as Pedro Sánchez himself announced yesterday. Although his appearance indicates otherwise, he is also riding a precarious parliamentary motorcycle. Added to the amnesty and the Koldo case is the inexhaustible buzz of Catalan electoral competition. The president can now arm himself with patience. Turbulence until he clears in Catalunya. Although we are in the post-process, some rules are still the same: if the Generalitat gets cold, Spain sneezes. Aaaaachis!
The unraveling: from sectarianism to authoritarianism, only a small leap is necessary. The Conselleria d’Egualtat i Feminismes of the Generalitat has given it and is now officially an organ of repression of freedom of thought and expression. The liberticidal and sectarian spirit has been reflected this time in a fine of 10,000 euros to Silvia Orriols, mayor of Ripoll and perhaps candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat for the far-right nostrada party Aliança Catalana. The Catalan Joan of Arc: senyera and crucifix, religion and homeland. Nothing that the far-right Orriols said in a television interview justifies the Generalitat assuming the authority to act as a parallel administration of justice.
To those who vehemently defend this type of sanctions from the media themselves – what a paradox! – we will only remind them of two things. One: they are the ones who most aggressively demonstrated against the gag law and demanded its modification, which by the way has not yet occurred, for granting full discretion to the administration to persecute citizens. Pay attention: you cannot defend freedom of expression on even days and the gag on odd days.
Two: they are right when they argue that not everything is acceptable. Except that we already have a Penal Code to resort to to punish excesses with procedural guarantees and not at the mercy of an administrative instructor on duty who is complacent with the orders of a politician.
To cover ourselves from the multiple distributors of far-right cards, we should write that Sílvia Orriols is a witch, the worst thing a mother has ever given birth to in politics. Maybe not. It would be a qualification that would reduce the weight of the previous argument. However, it is time to record that the Government of Pere Aragonès, with only 33 deputies, has slid dangerously down the slide of authoritarianism with this decision. Intentions don’t count, only facts. And these are what they are. This too may perhaps be reversed with the elections.
