Know how to read maps

My colleague Enric Juliana often refers to the fact that politicians must know how to read maps. Maps locate the geography of conflicts, so knowing them is essential to addressing reality. In the last few hours, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has made a reading of the election results which shows that he does not move well with the atlas of politics. The convocations of the Basque Country and Catalonia, the hot regions of the peninsular map, have strengthened Pedro Sánchez’s strategy, but also introduce Assos.

Despite this, Feijóo has taken the planisphere and has accused the president of the Spanish Government of fueling the process and has predicted that the PSC will make Carles Puigdemont president. Revive independence when the result of 12-M has been a jet of cold water on the last embers of the process? Make Puigdemont president when the Catalan socialists for the first time in history have won votes and seats, while the sovereignist parties do not add up in any case? By the way, if he fears that Junts’ candidate will win in the second round so that the republicans will give him their vote, it is enough to order his supporters to vote for Salvador Illa to avoid a repeat of an independence president.

The map of Catalan geography is very clear. The victory of the socialists was based not only on the big cities (it was the first force in the ten most populated), but also on the growth in traditional Junts feuds. And the increase of five points compared to the 2021 elections was distributed evenly in each of the four Catalan provinces.

I don’t know if Feijóo based the predictions on an outdated argument of his party or simply tried to dampen the joy in the socialist headquarters, but to maintain that the process is very much alive is reckless. He only needed to add that “no estaba muerto, no, no, estaba tomando cañas”.

It is good to read the maps well, also for the PP, in case it happened to them like Mafalda, which was thought that at any moment it could fall into the void because Argentina was right at the bottom of the globe.