Orrioles and the Hispanic-centric narrative

The far right is, everywhere, a problem for forming majorities, and it will soon be so in Catalonia, as the homegrown far-right vote rides the global waves of disaffection. In Catalonia, this wave has two additional components: the demographic crisis and the repression of the independence process. A third, more unprecedented factor is the self-destruction of the pro-independence narrative. If the independence process was a propaganda success, the post-process has turned the tables, and the prevailing narrative is the one that serves Spain's interests. In a successful exercise of victim blamingSpanish political parties have convinced their supporters that the 2017 repression was a "democratic" victory against the "coup plotters." And, to top it all off, the independence movement has decided to blame itself, so Catalans are no longer victims of Spanish inaction and repression, but rather guilty of letting ourselves be ensnared by the "naiveté," "lies," and "emotional blackmail" of the leaders who spent time in prison or exile. Self-criticism is very healthy, but in Catalonia we've made it a national pastime, and this is a moral victory for Spanish nationalism.

In this trend, they have stood outenfants terribles Convinced that the way to make themselves heard is to insult and defame what remains of the old Catalanist edifice—parties, institutions, the cultural and media establishment—they haven't entirely succeeded, but they have left a trail of ill humor and pessimism that has turned out to be—surprise, surprise!—the ideal breeding ground for the far right. This is one of the triggers for Silvia Orriols's emergence, but there are others: the surrender and repression of 2017, the jealousies of Junts and ERC, the fear of identity dissolution, the global conservative shift, changes in the population's information diet, and a xenophobia that is surely already waning. Note: we are not talking about mirages. All these factors are real, and therefore AC voters cannot be treated as paranoid. They are, rather, an expression of anger and hopelessness in the face of an all-too-complex reality.

I have no idea if Alianza is a front for the Spanish secret service, as Oriol Junqueras suggested. What I do know is that its omnipresence on social media must cost money, that the PSC treats Orriols as the leader of the opposition, and that the Spanish right is very proud because its rhetoric, besides being retrograde and denialist, is never directed against the powerful, but against the weakest links; against the marginalized and not against the exploiters; against immigrants and not against Spaniards; against the procedural actors and not against the PP and Vox.

We might argue that if the identity-based right is growing in the consolidated nation-states of the EU, this could even more readily happen in Catalonia, which lacks a state to defend itself and is perhaps the European territory that has undergone the most radical demographic transformation in the last half-century. But AC is also a symptom of a self-destructive impulse. Orriols and other gurus vying for the legacy of the Process have made a name for themselves by treating their predecessors mercilessly. If, because of the (manifest) errors of Puigdemont, Junqueras, and the CUP, we must brand them traitors and consign them to the dustbin of history, shouldn't we also curse the memory of Tarradellas, Companys, Macià, Cambó, Layret, Prat de la Riba, Pi y Margall, and Casanova because of the political limitations of a small country squeezed by its neighbors? Who would have it? do it againAs Jordi Cuixart said, what if the likely reward is that the enemy will imprison you and your own people will insult you in the street?