During the years of the independence process, diplomats from half the world passed through Barcelona to inquire about the future of a movement with an uncertain outcome that caused concern in many foreign ministries. In recent months, three ambassadors from developed countries have asked me with concern about the possible arrival of Vox to the Government hand in hand with the PP, without fully understanding why Spanish politics is so tense. From the outside, outlines are appreciated, not details. Inside, they are enlarged and envelop everything. In all cases, it was only after a while that they seemed to remember that they were in front of someone who works for a Catalan newspaper and they finally asked what happened to the independence process and how Catalonia is doing.
It could be said that Catalan politics has resumed its chores where it left off before embarking on the adventure of the procés, while it continues with the heavy digestion of 2017. Discussions that were left in hibernation have resurfaced, such as infrastructure or financing. Politicians rummage through the trunk of memories old projects, little convinced of their ability to make them come true. It has always been difficult in Catalonia to reach agreements on these matters and now even more so, with a more heterogeneous society and leaders with more aversion than ever to displeasing a part of their voters.
A group of business associations has rescued the fiscal pact that Artur Mas demanded before embracing the independence claim. The manifesto is signed by the Chamber of Barcelona, ??Girona, Sabadell, the employers’ associations Cecot and Pimec or associations such as FemCat, Amec or Economistes pel Benestar. Some tend to be slightly nationalistic. They clarify that they are not asking for the Basque quota and want to maintain inter-territorial solidarity. For now, ERC does not dare to recover this issue so as not to be branded as autonomist by pro-independence sectors.
Nor do the Republicans right now have a definite proposal on another of the debates recovered from the past, such as the expansion of El Prat. Faced with the central Executive, which advocates lengthening the third airport runway, the Government of the Generalitat is working on its own model that will increase capacity without touching natural spaces and expects to have a project in weeks. It is running late because in the meantime private proposals follow one another, from Foment’s initiative, which has collected nine possible projects, to that of a group of individuals that advocates building a track over the sea. Symptoms that part of Catalan society believes that Catalonia has wasted time and must recover it so as not to see its competitiveness diminished.
It is not surprising that the PSC has focused its budget negotiation with ERC on infrastructures rather than on the economic items of each department. Salvador Illa wants to take advantage of the hesitations and contradictions of the Republicans in these matters, which imply making decisions that are impossible to satisfy everyone. The PSC tries to establish itself as a useful party, just as ERC tries to establish itself as a government formation, once Junts has given up that task.
Catalonia recovers these debates, but continues under the shadow of 2017. Pedro Sánchez’s efforts to anesthetize the independence movement by mitigating the criminal effects of the secession attempt collide with the judges, who interpret the reforms in the Penal Code in a different way than what he intended the legislator, which can lead to long prison sentences for dozens more accused by 1-O about to go to trial. Prison sentences provide arguments for those who discredit dialogue with the State. Junts, who lives pending what the European justice decides on Carles Puigdemont, can thus revive the embers of the pro-independence mobilization, not so much on the streets (where it is evident that it is weak) as at the polls.
In order to respond to the diplomats who are interested in Catalonia, it would be necessary to know which of the two issues addressed will put the voters at the center of their priorities. If you want to go back to where we left off in 2017 or earlier.
