Antoni Bassas' analysis: "What do you carry in your bag? From frivolity to fear"

To begin, two notes on Catalan-Spanish politics. This afternoon, Parliament may censure Minister Paneque for the Commuter Rail system, if the resolutions presented in this regard by Junts, Esquerra, and the CUP are successful. The censure of a minister doesn't mean she has to give in; it's merely a stain on the record of Isla's government. I believe this parliamentary move is a mistake, both premature and unfair. Premature because Paneque has proven to be on top of the problem. And unfair because the bulk of the problem is Renfe, Adif, Minister Puente, and Spain. Now, Paneque must confront Renfe and Adif; confronting them means taking their eyes off the stairs and elevators that don't work, with broken trains, and achieving immediate improvements to what can be improved immediately, and that it doesn't require "patience" (as the minister requested) to see it resolved. If the stairs, elevators, cleaning, and trains of the Generalitat Railways are decent, why can't the State Railways be the same?

The other topic is Cospedal and Camacho. She's recorded waging dirty war against Catalonia. She may have lied, and the Penal Code states that what Cospedal and Camacho did is a crime. Cospedal was recorded in another audio recording from 2014 saying that Rajoy told her something about Bárcenas, with whom there was no communication failure. It's scandalous. Will Pedro Sánchez order the Prosecutor's Office to intervene? He's not doing so at the moment.

And then there is the great theater of the world. When we had not yet recovered from the kit In a survival situation, the European Union's crisis management commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, comes out and records herself in a video imitating these celebrities who feature in fashion magazines. what they carry in their bag.

I don't know if it's because they don't know any better or if they're being frivolous precisely because we're talking about it. Yesterday, trying to fix it, he said the video was only intended to prevent, if the data is wrong, irrational panic attacks like buying toilet paper during the pandemic.

Here we have the fear, the psychological preparation for the worst on a continent accustomed to peace, and the euphemisms. A century ago they called it the "Ministry of War," then they called it the "Ministry of Defense," now Sánchez prefers to talk about "security" rather than defense. Sánchez admits he doesn't know what we're facing; in Russia, yes, but when and how, in what form of conflict. And he promises the impossible: increasing military spending, sorry, security spending, without touching social spending. Hard to believe. And all this without going through Congress, lest he lose votes. Well, it turns out that just yesterday the British Labour government announced cuts in social benefits to increase military spending. Oh, and they don't call it cuts or austerity, they call it "renewal." All in the name of something that sounds good, "European common defense," but we all know that rearmament has no ceiling; you can always spend more on defense because you never feel secure enough, and therefore, it's a relative insurance of security.

To defend against Russia, yes, but also against the United States, which has declared a trade war on us.

Trump signed yesterday 25% tariffs on cars not made in the United StatesThe measure doesn't affect Seat or Cupra, which don't export cars to the United States, but it's a global shock. Why is Trump doing this?

Don't miss out This article that we publish today Yale economics professor Pinelopi Goldberg says that "Trump's strategy may not benefit the United States, but that's not the point. The goal is to harm others," because the United States is better prepared, larger, and has more domestic resources to withstand a trade war than other countries.

You count all this, and Paneque and Cospedal seem far away, right? This is the world we have.

Good morning.