Seen from the Madrid crowd, the situation is so enigmatic: 1. what did Puigdemont mean when he demanded that the PSOE fulfill its commitments? Is it that Sánchez promised him his support to return to the presidency of the Generalitat?; 2. does this supposed commitment oblige Salvador Illa to drop? 3. Is the move for Illa to crash at the investiture with Moncloa’s approval? 4. does anyone want to force a repeat of the elections, in the belief that the crisis of the Left will give victory to its direct competitor?; 5. what cards does Pedro Sánchez have so that the distribution of Catalan power does not harm his majority?; 6. why did 42% of voters abstain on May 12? Is there a divorce between society and its political class?, and 7. what is the state of health of the process after the polls? Is he dead, or does he have the strength that Pedro Sánchez gives him, according to Feijóo’s thesis?
Doubts and questions can become endless, and some will never have an answer. This chronicler, as he wrote here a week ago, understands that the political game will be resolved, even if it is with sanchista tears, with personal sacrifices or by returning to the polls. The most transcendent thing for the history of the country is the evolution of independence, interpreted, as a sociologist would do, by the trend that shows the only valid language for these purposes, which is the language of votes.
Personally, I think the process is going through an unstimulating moment for its supporters, but it maintains the vital constants. In other words, he is injured, but he is alive. Secessionism is more rural than urban, but there will be a process or attempts at a process as long as there are citizens in Catalonia who demand the right to decide and as long as there are leaders with aspirations to build the Catalan State. The withdrawal from the front line of Pere Aragonès and perhaps d’Oriol Junqueras represents a relevant crisis, it gives Puigdemont the momentary monopoly of sovereignty, but this leader not only did not give up anything, but also reveals that he now knows how he can do it better. May Sánchez and Feijóo count on this statement of intentions, because they are usually fulfilled.
The worst of the 12-M results is the external effect. To lose the absolute parliamentary majority is to lose the best of your speech to the surrounding countries. From a strictly democratic point of view, it is not the same to defend independence with an incontestable majority as with ideas that are always debatable and not very compatible with the border policy of the European Union.
In short: independence wounded, but not dead; propensity to be disinterested, partly attributable to fatigue due to the sterility of previous effort; a tendency to diminish the severity of previous diagnoses and a desire for normality that will not only depend on sovereignist activism, but also on Madrid’s ability to understand the Catalan differential fact. Everything seems like a very slight change of cycle that only one detail could spoil: turning Catalonia into a pure battleground for state power.
CUTOUTS
Bank The mandate of Pablo Hernández de Cos as governor of the Bank of Spain is about to end. It will be difficult to find a successor so solid, so capable, so independent and with such human quality. And for the Central Government, a challenge: to demonstrate that the Bank of Spain is an exception in the “assault” on institutions.
Prosecutor Álvaro García Ortiz, State Attorney General, told El País: “If we asked for rectification for every false news, we wouldn’t do anything else”. Well, he will have to ask for some because, just as there are sentences that create jurisprudence, there are also false truths that they manufacture from undisproved lies.
Credit/1 Advice for socialist spokespersons: they would be more convincing if, when asked about management, they answered with data and explanations. Responding with attacks on the right and the ultra-right, as they always do, just seems to lack arguments.
Credit/2 Note for PP spokespersons: they would gain credibility and votes if, when asked about the project, they did something more than send Sánchez to hell. To oppose is not only to overthrow the Executive, it is to create a little illusion.
Alegria The spokeswoman lives up to her surname: she answers the most dramatic questions with smiling laughter. It reminds me of Isabel Pantoja’s historic advice to Julián Muñoz: “Teeth, Julián, teeth, that’s what sucks”.
