In the business world in Catalonia, adaptation to the new political times is progressing rapidly. Businessmen and their organizations feel the state of the power relations between the different political formations and act accordingly, with that pragmatism, both ours and insulted, that has characterized it for centuries. After a long period of political ostracism, during the long decade of the process, in the corridors of economic power, activity is now picking up again.
The interlocution of the money society with the two forces that seem to be emerging in the immediate future, the PSC of Salvador Illa, privileged contact with the political power in the capital, and the Junts of Carles Puigdemont, which deepens its traffic on the way to to be the political alternative longed for by the bourgeoisie, for the time being more in its interest to count on a similar force than because of the firmness of the first step. It is the bumpy road from post-convergence to pro-vergence.
The socialist, if only because it is more to hand than the independentist exile, has become a must-see for any carrier of a new proposal. Or for those who want to know how things will be in Catalonia in the near future, according to the forecasts that emerge from the autonomous polls that are circulating and that predict a wide victory for the PSC. Their speech sounds like heavenly music: political and social stability; pacification of Catalonia, and complicity in much of the economic program, with the minor exception of fiscal measures.
Together, more slowly, it is gaining positions, despite the fact that its political landing, according to the opinion of the nobles of the economy, is being slow. Good proof of this, this same week during the first debate in Congress on the amnesty law. The intervention of Miriam Nogueras, the pro-independence spokeswoman, focusing, with names and surnames, on judges and communication groups, has raised the political temperature. It is clear that these expect to obtain a high income from the already known lawfare complaints, or those that may come. A high-risk bet, if there is no progress, in view of the palpable reality that the fire of the reaction of the judiciary against the amnesty and any attempt to recognize responsibility for the black pages of the reaction has been stoked of the State against the process.
On Barcelona’s long Diagonal, Nogueras’ sentences have been met with irritation, especially because they fear that his own campaign of conciliatory proselytism between colleagues from the rest of Spain and the official and state estates could end up being considered an exercise in ‘political innocence.
Despite the fact that the Puigdemonts have already given the first signs of harmony with the economic forces – a recent proof through a proposal of law to improve the fiscal regime of foundations and patronage, a traditional aspiration of the bourgeois salons and which appears in the decalogue of proposals that the Catalan employers’ association Foment sent to Junts, and to the PNB, just a month ago – economic issues do not stand out as a priority so far. Puigdemont believes that he must shore up the political agreements, the so-called national agenda, before entering into economic negotiations.
And with ERC, the party of Oriol Junqueras and president Pere Aragonès, things continue without progress. The already burdensome file of the expansion of the Barcelona airport, which the republicans have not yet seen, as Territori highlighted by stating that the Prat concentrates too much airport activity and betting on the strengthening of those in Reus and Girona. The same is true, according to businessmen, with investment plans to deal with the long drought. Despite this, the contacts continue; not without reason that the Republicans continue to excite business interest given their status as head of the Generalitat.
But Nogueras’ intervention was not the only setback this week for the notable Catalans. The other was the Government’s decision that the Minister of Economy, Natàlia Mas, did not attend the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council meeting on Monday, citing that the Generalitat already has a “bilateral” negotiation open with the Central Government to agree on a “singular” financing model for Catalonia. Statements that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, retorted furiously in view of the pressures of the popular councilors: “There is no bilateral negotiation with Catalonia”.
It is possible that Mas extrapolates the ERC’s negotiations with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, which resulted in the cancellation of 20% of the Generalitat’s debt with the state FLA and the partial transfer of Rodalies, for conclude that it is a “bilateral” thing. But it would be more accurate to describe it as multilateral, since the first agreement on Catalonia, at least until now, has as its premise its applicability under the same conditions to the rest of the autonomies. As Sánchez’s ministers have not stopped pointing out. Something similar to what happened before the process, when Jordi Pujol, Pasqual Maragall, José Montilla or Artur Mas were in charge of the Generalitat.
The employers have not understood the absence of the minister, since they consider that going to the meeting does not prevent them from holding advanced talks with the socialists, while it is an additional argument for the PP communities, always ready to wave the cloth of the comparative grievance, but in this case without reason and without any material advantage. And they add that doing so, raising political tension with the rest of Spain on the basis of a tiny minority of 33 seats in Parliament, entails high doses of adventurism. The calibration of the relationship of forces must be part of the political calculation.
