If for decades, in the face of the purism of the noucentista movement, some proclaimed that Catalan wouldn't be a normal language until it became pornography and gossip columnists, now we can also say (what a relief) that Catalan politics won't be normalized without a homegrown far-right. After all, there are already thousands of registered voters in Catalonia who readily vote for Vox, and yet it's a party that's not only fascist but also seeks to destroy what remains of Catalan identity and turn us into a kind of Spanish Eastern Pyrenees. It was naive to think that the same ideological spasms that threaten the entire world wouldn't arise among Catalan nationalists. Fear, populism, and xenophobia are risks to which we Catalans are not immune. The Catalan Alliance can't be described as a particularly powerful or skilled party, and its leader has a rather impressive oratory, but like in martial arts, he has exploited his opponent's attacks to his own advantage. And here they are, with a polling station projecting up to 10 seats in the Parliament, which, added to the dozen Vox parties, could form a significant minority, capable of distorting and even blocking the vote.
Those who have spoken most about the Catalan Alliance are not the pro-independence parties, but the "constitutionalist" left, that is, the PSC and a section of the Comuns (Commons), who saw that they had before them a perfect opportunity to delegitimize Catalan sovereignty, on which they have always, since the years of the Process, tried to hang the sham of supremacism. Even when the batons dissuaded voters from the October 1st elections in the name of the sacred unity of Spain, Coscubieles appeared ready to divert attention by attacking sovereignty and its alleged followers. identity-based ticos. The fact is that these blows and attacks on the sovereignty of the Parliament (after three absolute majorities in favor of independence) are the basis upon which a segment of the independence movement decided that it was enough to simply smile and play it cool. The DUI operetta, the leaders' flight, the failure of Tsunami, and the Urquinaona riots did the rest.
Some of us already warned that this would come at a price, and that it would be a systemic price: in recent years, faith in democracy, in the power of the vote, has plummeted in Catalonia. If the independence movement was naive, even more naive is the PSC (and the PSOE, and the PP) if it believes that, after the indignity of Article 155, we can "turn the page" and plunge the country into a kind of collective amnesia that would allow us to rediscover the truth. normal. On the contrary, part of the popular energy of the Process has turned into skepticism and abstention; another part has fallen into the clutches of the authoritarian, anti-Spanish, anti-immigration and anti-wokeAs this sector already had a tailwind from the success of conservative populism in much of Europe and now also in the US, it can be said that the Catalan Alliance has found success without having to lift a finger.
The next Parliament could be divided into two blocs, pro-Spanish and pro-Catalan, each of which could be divided into three or four parties ranging from the far left to the far right. The possibility of implementing united policies in the long term will be greatly diminished. The responsibility of the central parties (PSC, Junts, ERC, and Comuns) is to resist extremist temptations and to open a courageous dialogue about what we want our children's country to be like. Doing this without the strong representation that democratic sovereignty still enjoys—putting it up against a wall, as the PP did in 2017—would condemn us to paralysis, divide the country, and could further fuel an insatiable far right.
