Uproar on the right and desolation on the left of the socialists, where the noisy leaderships of four days ago are getting lost in a general blurring. With canonical cases in both Catalan and Spanish politics, albeit with different forms and styles. Two examples of how stars that seemed to break barriers are fading: Pablo Iglesias, convinced that his presence was enough, did not want to understand that politics has a part of heavy and unsightly work behind the scenes, he was lazy about organic entanglements and got stuck when it came to moving from rhetoric to action. Result: he is a little more out of play every day. In the Catalan case, Ada Colau, who entered the mayorship with momentum, gradually blurred as if she couldn't find her place in the world of institutional politics and got lost in the transition from verbal illusions to practical concreteness. The drift of Podem and Comuns and the consequent fragmentation of their space, on a direct path to insolvency, force us to question the so-called far-left. And it's not just a problem for Catalonia or Spain.
This inability to build a space on the left means that those who are capitalizing on the discontent in the current stage of neoliberal capitalism are not the far-left but the far-right, which is gaining increasing influence over the right at the pace of Trumpist delusions. In the Spanish case, it is already a fact that the PP and Vox recognize each other as partners. The PP, which we all know where it comes from, has not withstood the onslaughts of the far-right. Vox's winks have made inroads in sectors of the middle classes in a depressive moment. The leader of the Catalan PP Alejandro Fernández has expressed it without scruples to ARA: “Catalonia also needs Milei’s chainsaw” and “there is no doubt that Aliança Catalana will end up eating Junts”.
The far-right, despite its irregular implantation, takes advantage of time, while the far-left cannot find its place. We also see this in France. In the last municipal elections, the squabbles between Plaça Pública, the Socialist Party and La France Insoumise have highlighted the limits of the left, more concerned with their neighbor than with their adversaries. And social democratic parties have difficulties in reconvening themselves as the backbone of an alternative to conservative radicalization. Deep down, it is the concept of citizenship that is at stake.
