Together and the danger of having your agenda set
The far right has long understood that agenda control is crucial in politics—that is, deciding which issues occupy public debate—and therefore focuses its efforts on placing certain issues at the center of discussion. Its favorite topics are immigration, insecurity, political party corruption, and, in general, anything it believes serves as a vehicle for hate speech and its authoritarian and anti-democratic values. It is therefore difficult to understand how a party like Junts could have fallen into the Catalan Alliance's trap in the Parliament and made it known that it has a similar position to Silvia Orriols's party on the issue of the Islamic veil, even though it ultimately voted against it.
This motion was negotiated between the Catalan Alliance and Vox, thus highlighting the programmatic overlap between the two extreme right-wing parties. The vote would not have received the attention it ultimately received if not for this strange maneuver by Junts, which also allowed Orriols to boast to Parliament and try to count on Parliament. "Welcome to the far right," he told them.
Junts is right about one thing. As MP David Saldoni pointed out in his speech, the entire motion oozed "hatred against Muslims." It must be borne in mind that it is false that behind this proposal there is any "feminist" desire to defend the rights of Muslim women. What the far right is trying to do is further stigmatize them and hinder their integration. The ban they are advocating is not, as in France, in the name of a secularism that prohibits all religious symbols, including Christian ones, but is directed solely against a specific community. What they seek is to foment hatred, in this case against Islamic believers, because this is the social climate where these parties thrive. We're seeing it clearly these days in the United States.
The issue of the Islamic veil deserves a more in-depth and serious debate. Why does anyone believe that banning headscarves in schools will promote the integration of Muslim girls, or rather isolate and exclude them? How would we explain why Christian symbols are not banned at the same time? Is this where the emphasis should be placed, or rather on clearly illegal practices, such as forced marriages or clitoridectomy? The goal, in any case, should be for all girls to complete school, and not turn schools into a battlefield between good guys and bad guys that ends up creating conflict where none currently exists.
Junts is making the same mistake that the PP has made with Vox in recent years: instead of imposing its own agenda, it is being dragged along by that of the far right. And by agreeing with him on some points, he whitewashes a party that his secretary general, Jordi Turull, called "anti-Catalonia." Fortunately, Junts still has time to rectify its course, take a stand, and avoid being influenced by those whose only goal is to sow discord in our neighborhoods.
