Feijoo's ten commandments

This week the Popular Party presented its election manifesto. It is a 249-point roadmap that, once he reaches the Moncloa, Alberto Núñez Feijóo will implement as soon as he can. Ten of these points directly affect Catalonia, and needless to say, they are policies to improve our well-being and our rights. If the PP needs Vox's support, all these measures will favor us even more. Ironies aside, the popular program contains, to put it mildly, an agenda of unprecedented institutional, linguistic, and fiscal recentralization. Mind you, not one of the 249 points in the program speaks of closing TV3. That, I suppose, he leaves for Abascal to claim credit for.

1. The PP proposes to repeal the permission to speak Catalan, Basque, and Galician in the debates of the Congressional plenary session. The paradox of a Galician forbidding Galician is a textbook example of the absurd. Nothing new; the PP wants minority languages to be much more so. Catalan gives them hives.

2. The PP proposes to guarantee the right to receive education in Spanish at all educational stages. Plain and simple, there is no need for them to do anything different. Spanish is already present in school, as evidenced by the fact that there is not a single boy or girl who finishes an educational stage without knowing Spanish. The obsession against linguistic immersion does not attend to sociolinguistic reasons but to an obtuse nationalism.

3. The PP will make Spanish the working language of the bodies of maximum cooperation between the State and the autonomous regions. It is one more way to reduce the institutional recognition of Catalan. Will they do it? It is unknown. But as an electoral promise it works for them, even if not even Xavier García Albiol sees it very clearly.

4. Beyond the language, which is their strong suit, the PP will repeal the amnesty law. It does not matter that it is constitutional and backed by Europe. They cannot stomach that the leaders of the Process have the amnesty, and if it were up to them, they would scrap this law with retroactive effects. Luckily, it does not work like that.

5. The PP will change the Penal Code in order to recover the crime of sedition and make it a criminal offense to call an illegal referendum. With that adjective, they might get their fingers caught. If the referendum is legal, then, will they not be able to lift a finger? Unfortunately, although the majority of Catalans are in favor of the right to decide, for now, we will have to go without.

6. The PP, regarding the financing of Catalonia, digs in its heels and proposes to “reject singular regimes negotiated bilaterally.” In other words, no new singular financing for Catalonia, no economic agreement, nor anything resembling it. At best, more of the same for everyone. And watered down.

7. The PP proposes to avoid the fragmentation of the management of State taxes. It therefore limits the possibility of advancing towards a Catalan Treasury with greater management capacity. We will stay as we were. Salvador Illa said we had it within reach, but we wouldn't catch a whiff of a Catalan Treasury in the short or medium term.

8. The PP will legally shield the single cash box regarding Social Security. It horrifies them that resources could be separated territorially and that pensions could be paid here differently from other parts of Spain. Everyone goes through the same sieve and that is the end of that.

9. The PP proposes to implement a common university entrance exam throughout Spain. A not-so-subtle way to reduce Catalonia's margin to maintain its own selectivity model. It is not an innocent measure at all.

10. Finally, the PP proposes to recover the reliability of the Rodalies network, starting with the lines with the most incidents and with effective investment commitments. Now, if Feijóo promises us this, we will vote for him en masse in Catalonia. Now he will come and fix it for us. What happiness.