These two lines from Catullus are famous: “I hate and I love, perhaps you wonder how it can be.” / I don’t know, but I live it like this and it tortures me”. Since there are no clear hegemonies in Catalonia or the rest of Spain, the intimate experience of the Latin poet, which so many lovers have experienced, is now also a constant in our public life.
Without absolute majorities, governments are now the result of pacts between very different political cultures. This, which is so common in European countries, there is no way it will work among us. Coalitions or alliances always fail in a political culture like ours, in which the main value is not winning, but crushing the opponent: eliminating him.
Among us, the political rival is directly an enemy. We saw it during the years of the process. The migrated pro-independence majority in Parliament (which could not have even reviewed the electoral law) wanted to impose its yes or no to the point of silencing the opposition. The State’s response was of the same nature. From the police “a por ellos” to the excessive judicial search.
If that crash stole ten years from us, undoing the knot seems to steal ten more. i hate you i love you The Government of Catalonia is barely surviving while the country is collapsing (education, drought, insecurity, economy). As for the central government, it must overcome every day the obstacles and traps prepared for it by the same people who made it possible. Meanwhile, the world is moving determinedly towards a disastrous horizon.
There are still embers of love, in the midst of hatred (but no longer in politics, only in civil life). As we go, hatred will dominate everything and sweet wine will turn to vinegar. History teaches that, in times of crisis, if hatred becomes the dominant sentiment, it acts like a thick fog. A fog that does not let us see the precipice towards which we advance with excited steps.
