García Albiol, Garriga and Orriols
Today, while we're still evaluating polls, let me have a moment with the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, of the People's Party (PP), who made a surprising defense of the Language Pact. With the political sagacity and instinct that characterize him, he wasn't unaware, in doing so, that his followers would turn on him, and he wasn't unaware, either, that he wouldn't receive any praise from others. By using the Catalan language as other colleagues of his have used it, in an "organic" and "natural" way, he is returning—he alone, of course—to the PP of the past, the one of those who never once put spoke wheels in the wheels of a language they spoke quite normally. The PP of the leaders who—in some cases I know—took their children to Catalanist schools, where the language of instruction was taken for granted and what mattered were the subjects. What does Dolors Montserrat think (deep down, I say)?
For the Madrid PP, the Catalan PP must be nothing more than an extra (and not a very brilliant one at that). Alejandro Fernández—another refined politician—knows this all too well. I understand this calculated and thoughtless phrase as the other day's Ignacio Garriga, the leader of Vox, who said he wanted to see his children dance sardanas (yes, sardanas; they must be the only children in Catalonia who do so) without them "being replaced by the Feast of the Lamb." Statements like these—which, incidentally, in a place like Galicia or the Basque Country are normal among PP members—are here the work and grace of a new player in the comedy of errors of our political history: the Catalan Alliance.
With the emergence of the Catalan Alliance, which was already predicted to be successful days ago, the parties of the right, left, and center must choose what drink is on the cocktail menu. That's the one that's winning. We'd copy it, but don't let it be noticeable. Let's not make it weaker, or it'll be diluted. Let's not make it stronger, or we'll get drunk. Those who have chosen to make it alcohol-free are seeing how people are switching bars.