How long can the bourgeoisie and the Catalan business community be without a direct political interlocutor in the style of the old pujolisme? Will he end up getting used to a new reality without an accomplice representative and defender of his interests in Madrid and Barcelona to surrender to other forces? Could it be the PP? Is a center-right Catalanist or nationalist force no longer necessary? The void has lasted more than a decade and is palpable in debates and economic forums of all kinds. To the point of no return?
The absence of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who was very busy organizing the campaign that he precipitated after last Sunday’s fiasco, was highlighted at the Economic Circle. And the space he left for the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had a brilliant performance, especially because it was easy. Without competition he took the applause without risking much, without advancing anything concrete. With the presidential aura given to him by the polls, it was enough to leave the audience speechless. The long absence of the various mutations of the old convergent nationalism hardly generates any comments.
Since the post-referendum failure of October 1, 2017 and the relocation of business headquarters, a political replacement operation has been rehearsed that today can be considered liquidated. The attempt by Oriol Junqueras and ERC to gentrify and fill the space for dialogue with the economic elites. But that didn’t end well. Despite the more or less explicit statements of Junqueras and the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, trying to present themselves as a kind of uncorrupted relief of the old Convergència in representing the economic interests of business, everything has been a failed act . Files such as the expansion of El Prat airport or fiscal policy are erected as walls between them and the elite. Although it is not only these prosaic affairs. The senators of the economy are not characterized by flexibility, while the leaders of ERC have been blocked between this announced turn and their essential electoral bases.
Two political facts have made it very clear. The first, in Barcelona, ​​the fundamental battle of the last elections of 28-M in Catalonia. In 2019, the local bourgeoisie blocked the way for its candidate, Ernest Maragall, because of the support of the agent at the time, Manuel Valls, for the mayoress Ada Colau. Certainly, with divisions and internal tensions, maintained throughout the last term of office of the mayoress.
In these last elections, the problems for the Republicans have been repeated in two ways. The Economic Circle, for example, had made it clear, many months before the start of the campaign, that it saw the Socialist candidate, Jaume Collboni, as more sympathetic and more likely to win, than the ERC candidate. It was not the only strategic business center with a similar calculation, but this was where it manifested itself most clearly.
An election that was qualified as a lesser evil due to the absence of an own candidate with credentials. Until the appearance, of course, of the veteran Xavier Trias. Doubtful, at first, with conviction and decision as the decisive day approached. His appearance at the meeting of the Circle leaves for history the graphic evidence of the euphoria for his result. For the first time in more than a decade, the local fans could once again feel the sweet taste of victory. With the added surprise, since the overwhelming majority of the polls had not foreseen it. With some solitary exception, like the first one from La Vanguardia on January 16.
His victory and the good result of Junts in the rest of Catalonia have given rise to speculation with the idea of ​​his reorientation towards a neo-convergence adapted to the times of the post-process. Although in the lists for the generals this has not been an option anymore. In addition, Trias has defined his project in a strictly local way, apart from his own party, to which he has warned that in the Catalan capital he is, in theory, the one in charge. It has been like this during the campaign. In any case, he would not lack support from the economic world if he tried to take the step.
But the most skeptical, and they are not few, point out that Carles Puigdemont is the dominant vector in Junts and his interests are not those of recovering dialogue and pragmatic negotiation.
And here comes the second political element that has enormously widened the gap between the bourgeoisie and ERC. The turn announced by Aragonès at the meeting of the Circle, in which he anticipated a new Government in Madrid of the PP, or worse, of the PP with Vox, which forces them to prepare by organizing a kind of pro-independence front.
For the elite, on the other hand, the prospect of an electoral victory for the PP, currently the one that has the most possibilities, not only does not scare them; he contemplates it with relative normality. Proof of this, the welcome to Feijóo in the aforementioned forum. His maxim is to negotiate with Moncloa, whoever the tenant is.
The disqualification of Catalan nationalism intertwined with business continues and there is no end in sight. Meanwhile, it is herself, the bourgeoisie, who has to act as the solitary spokesperson for their interests, in increasingly ritualistic acts. Josep Sánchez Llibre, president of Foment, and Jaume Guardiola, president of Cercle, present the classic demands for more funding and more public investment. They have done it these last few days. But it spreads like an oil stain that the central concern of this social class is taxes, the inexorable power of territorial depoliticization. It was like this during the long night of the Franco regime until Jordi Pujol arrived. Feijóo tries to fish in these waters these days. So far with very little success. We will see in the next elections on July 23.
