Catalan pragmatism above any other consideration. The traditional desire of the Barcelona economic elites, to be politically decisive in Madrid, is insinuated after a long journey through the desert after the general elections last Sunday. In these first bars of what is intuited to be a long negotiation to form a government, the Catalan bourgeoisie is trying to make it not just a mirage. In the coming months it will be seen if the tragedy will become a farce or if there is more hope.
Once the PP government has been ruled out, due to an electoral ruling, and the grand coalition or a general understanding between popular and socialists, due to the climate of political clash between the two, initially the preferred ones, the pact of the PSOE and Sumar with the nationalist and pro-independence parties is considered better way out than repeating the elections. In Barcelona, ??obviously, not in Madrid, where his peers don’t even want to hear about a reissue of the Pedro Sánchez government. And some Catalan business leaders have already begun to apply to make this agreement possible.
Junts, a political force that incorporates, asleep, the leathery convergent gene, its reference for decades, has the key to the legislature. He is the kingmaker of the new Spanish Parliament, as the influential Financial Times described Carles Puigdemont, the former president of the Generalitat who took refuge in Waterloo, to the great delight of the leaders of the independence party. In addition, reinforcing this trend, the Catalan socialists, led by Salvador Illa, have gained prominence as a result of their decisive electoral contribution to the survival of sanchismo.
However, in this unexpected new opportunity for Catalan relevance, it is difficult to guess what goes beyond appearances from the point of view of the economic powers.
On July 23, the distance between the Catalan businessmen and Puigdemont was palpable. So much so that they barely voted for him. The same people who, to a large extent, gave their support to Xavier Trias to remove Ada Colau from the Barcelona mayor’s office leaned largely towards the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Last Sunday, it was found that on May 28 they had not voted for Junts but for a trustworthy man from Barcelona that they considered one of their own.
A week ago, faced with the dilemma between the pocket, that is, lower taxation, à la Isabel Díaz Ayuso in Madrid, for the State as a whole or avoiding the risk that the popular ones would end up depending on Vox to form a government, with the consequent political turbulence that this would entail in Catalonia, the majority chose the first option. Thinking that Sanchismo had already conceded too much to the Podemite left and the independence movement.
And they would have done it even more, according to many of them, if the councilors of Feijóo’s party had not left their candidate in Barcelona by the ditch, a maneuver that opens the door to a future PSC-Comuns coalition in the Catalan capital, true anathema for the notables of the economy. Trias also represented, from his point of view, the most pragmatic and pactist sector of Junts, a kind of announcement of the return of the long-awaited neopujlismo.
In short, many tried to calm down on Sunday while they voted, thinking that between the pressures of the Spanish economic powers and the European partners from Brussels, a government from the right-wing front, which seemed safe, would moderate its demands, Giorgia Meloni style, the populist Prime Minister of Italy; well the PSOE would make way for Feijóo with a second abstention in the investiture and Vox would not enter the executive. It must be noted, however, that there were also minority sectors of the upper bourgeoisie who chose the socialist ticket. And among them, very notable and relevant characters.
But, despite that distance, the most active businessmen were not unaware of what the former president was up to from his refuge in Waterloo. There was estrangement, but no rupture or isolation. And the proof is that some economic leaders have maintained contact through regular visits and knew that Puigdemont had in mind for months the possibility of opening negotiations with the central government.
Last spring, before anyone could imagine that Pedro Sánchez would advance the elections, Puigdemont had already anticipated some representative of the bourgeoisie who hoped to be decisive in Parliament when the elections took place.
Among others, he met in Brussels, shortly before the municipal elections, with the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who in turn informed the big Catalan businessmen and some leaders of other political forces of the content.
At that time, the leader of Junts ventured to obtain up to a dozen deputies in the elections, which indicates that he considered with perhaps a certain excess of optimism that it would already be possible to defeat the rivals of the ERC of Oriol Junqueras.
Puigdemont explained to his economic interlocutors that the pact he was advocating should include, in addition to the current government, the rest of the State powers, beginning with the King and the judiciary. Also the economic world. The amnesty for all the reprisals, more than 4,000 according to the maximum calculations, was the great condition. He did not mention, in those meetings, the self-determination referendum.
The Catalan economic powers base their hope for an agreement that “could contribute to resolving the conflict between Catalonia and the rest of Spain” on Puigdemont’s predisposition. And the contacts have already multiplied during the few days that have elapsed since the counting of the votes, especially with Illa and those around Puigdemont. In all cases, businessmen have urged politicians to agree.
From Foment to the Cercle d’Economia, chaired by Jaume Guardiola, businessmen want that in addition to more political issues, such as amnesty, issues that can boost the economy while improving the climate between Catalonia and the rest of Spain be addressed. : regional financing and investment in infrastructures, in the first place. Also, the direct management of European Next Generation funds.