Catalonia, towards a new stage
The Diada calls us once again to think about ourselves as a people, to decide what we want to be in the coming years. It's beginning to be time to ask ourselves again where we want to go, and to do so calmly, without exclusions or arguments, but rather through reasoning, one of our precious words that calls us to a well-crafted and shared reason. Our national holiday commemorates a setback, but Catalonia has always grown in the face of defeat: we think, if not of the great growth in the 18th century, then just after 1714, as Pierre Vilar taught us.
Forging a new social and political project is now urgent. We are witnessing a harsh change of era, with outcomes still very uncertain. Many beliefs we once held as certainties are crumbling. Our belief in respect for life, human rights, and justice as the basic mechanisms of our coexistence; in democracy as a good forever achieved; and in scientific progress as a method for permanently improving the world. The belief, in short, that we lived in solid societies, that had left behind the dark ages of self-destruction and the law of the jungle and could wisely face the times to come.
Well, precisely because we live in difficult times, it's more urgent than ever to know what we want. Because the coming years will probably mark a setback in many ways, but they will be shorter and less terrible times if we move forward with the proposals to leave them behind. And there are many urgent changes; it's not about inventing new causes.
For example, in relation to political organization, which has often been the central theme of the Diada. Another myth that has fallen is that of Europe's strength, of its weight in the world; the ongoing wars have amply shown that Europe is increasingly less of a major player, and this not only implies a loss of economic and political influence, but also a denial of the values we have championed for the past eighty years.
From my point of view, the geopolitical situation calls for strengthening the European Union, which is going through a very difficult time, with so much unbridled right-wing movement, but to which we can give another dimension, another purpose. It seems clear to me that to begin a new era, we must begin the process of weakening the European states as we have known them, and move toward supranational forms, on the one hand, and much more local ones, on the other. That is, a stronger and more democratic Europe, capable of confronting current geopolitical dangers, and, at the same time, what we can understand as a Europe of peoples and not of states, a federation of regions with their own personality, capable of autonomously resolving issues related to their functioning and their priorities. A Europe that is strong enough internationally and free and enlightened enough to accept and allow the true diversity of its people, its cultures, its needs, and its languages to develop.
Catalonia is well positioned to embark on this path, even if it hasn't expressed itself that way recently. As long as we are in a Europe of states, Catalonia will have no other options than the current autonomy or, at best, a Spanish federation. And, hey! It will have to be defended without fuss, as times of harsh state nationalism are coming. But precisely because exacerbated nationalism will come—we are in the"America first", so similar to the"Deuschland über alles"– we must offer an alternative to arrogant nationalisms.
The results of the IFOP study on French opinions on decentralization are very interesting, for example. We all know that France is a country that was homogenized by blood and fire: the creatures of Northern Catalonia, the Netherlands, Brittany, the Country speak their native languages. This was equality; everyone speaks. Well, things are changing: 68% of the French believe that more decentralization is needed, and even talk about cultural rights; 90%– in Corsica, in Alsace, in the Basque Country...
Certainly, times are changing, and very quickly. A new organization will not be for tomorrow, for next year; a pioneer in this project.