Are you sure the problem is called Silvia Orriols?

The far right is growing everywhere. In Argentina, Milei, whom many thought was in crisis, has been reborn. Polls in almost every country indicate a shift in voting patterns toward right-wing populism, which, while not possessing all the characteristics of historical fascist movements, shares many similarities. Beyond the fact that communication skills may explain part of this shift, there are objective causes that, although not easily explained, are also at its root. Economic inequality, social exclusion, a lack of opportunities, the low credibility of institutional politics, the fear among the middle class of losing their status... The far right knows how to exploit fears, uses immigration as a scapegoat, and promises redemption and a return to an imaginary, tribal society. Easy and false answers to complex social and economic problems. It cannot be denied that all this is happening because traditional political parties have failed to address people's concerns or respond to social changes. The fact that these concerns are expressed in brutal and unpleasant ways should not prevent us from listening more to the people. Many young people no longer identify with democratic values or believe they should defend them. This tectonic shift in political preferences is not solely, or even primarily, a matter of the right wing, which has led to its traditional electorate becoming more extreme. Traditional political frameworks have fragmented, ultimately swelling the ranks of fascist-leaning voters from various sources. This is a reaction to humiliation and disillusionment: the triumph of post-politics.

Everywhere, the agenda is set by the far right with the most reactionary issues, and anti-immigrant rhetoric is used to...engagementThus, the traditional right enters the mindset of totalitarian populism, attempting to avoid a continued hemorrhage of votes or voting intentions. This is the relationship between Vox and the PP. The latter now stakes its survival on Díaz Ayuso echoing Abascal's rhetoric. They impose a brutal, agonistic, and smear-like discourse here and there, which logically contributes even further to weakening a democratic culture that, above all, demands respect for diversity and pluralism. This shift towards anti-system politics has its own dimension in Catalonia, which only serves to amplify the general trend. Apart from Vox's rancid Spanish nationalism, the same anti-democratic and fascist version has emerged from the independence movement, which doesn't replace the other but rather complements it. Aliança Catalana didn't appear out of nowhere; it's a product forged in the heat of the "prodigious decade" of unbridled independence, which, as the saying goes, was a real mess. That frustration would drive some to extrapolitical and antipolitical positions was quite predictable. It only took time and people with the necessary shamelessness for someone to stop the flow and channel the most rudimentary part of the movement into dangerously outlandish attitudes.

Now, the pro-independence Junts party is terrified to see Silvia Orriols's seemingly unstoppable rise in the polls. She could achieve a significant result at their expense, even winning in the Catalan interior, and especially in Carlist Catalonia. In fact, Junts is aligning its discourse on immigration and identity issues with that of the mayor of Ripoll, who knows that time is on her side and that she will be the one to capture the vote for Junts' new message. Even this "break" with Pedro Sánchez has been interpreted as a return to provincialism. This could be a monumental mistake. Adopting the adversary's mindset is usually a bad bet. It makes the discourse of the Catalan far-right mayor seem honorable and normalized. Between originality and imitation, voters usually choose the former. This is without even considering that incorporating principles that advocate for segregation and division of the country is a morally dubious strategy. The underlying problem is not Orriols' speech, delivered in a Catalan that tries to sound old-fashioned, and which he declaims with the intonation ofThe shepherd boysThe issue is that there is an electorate, especially young people, who were politicized starting in 2010 with simplistic formulas, exercises in pseudo-romantic idealism, and hate speech. Although the former leaders retreated and claimed it had been a failed game, some voters were left hanging on, prisoners of learned concepts and with a particular way of understanding politics that has little to do with democratic values and even less with any semblance of a grasp of reality. Aliança Catalana is a byproduct of the Process, whether one likes it or not. Not so much of its failure as of some of its methods and content. Now, 30% of the population is willing to vote for the far right. Those responsible for at least part of this bias should be doing the educating they failed to do at the time, instead of trying to ride the wave again.