1. Leadership. The entire show is on Puigdemont. It seems Junts is short on role models. The goal was to announce the severance of relations with the Sánchez government. And he did it alone, with the petrified expression that has long characterized him, and without even calling a press conference, as would have been appropriate, if it were truly a gesture of great political significance. None of this. When you lose your footing, when the weather changes and you can't find your place, you happily go from playing politics to playing at politics.
In theory, it was called for a great step forward, and what we've seen is a disoriented party making noise, betting on the increasingly blurred image of the exiled president. What does it live for outside the world, Junts? What's the point of the current leadership hiding behind an image that at this point is more memory than present? More than a political initiative, it seemed like a ritual of confusion, of wanting to insinuate a lot without intending to do anything. And even more so after Puigdemont's pathetic to-do and run: back to Catalonia only to run away again. That day, he finally lost whatever charisma he had left. And he put Junts in the impasse that this Perpignan ritual has elevated to a higher level. Everyone remained silent before the president, who announced a vague break with the Socialists as a means of relaunching himself. And in fact, all he's achieving is making his detachment from reality evident.
With this surrender to Puigdemont, the current Junts leadership confirms its insecurity, its obsession with having under control a party that needs a shake-up, a broad renewal, to once again play the role of the Catalan right it inherited from the era of President Pujol, adapting it to current circumstances. Puigdemont is a faded icon of a previous era that ended in flight due to its inability to read reality and understand how far it could go. It's more a memory of the past than a leadership for the future. Together, then, they record their disorientation, even though some perfidious voices suggest that putting Puigdemont front and center could hasten his departure.
2. Backtracking. The current scenario bears little resemblance to 2017. The political space in both Catalonia and Spain has been redirected according to the signs of the times. And the Catalan right is playing at confusion, thinking perhaps it will gain ground. Breaking the taboo of Vox and the Catalan Alliance is one path. And it seems they've decided to take their first steps.
Pedro Sánchez's contributions to the majority were in line with the principle of parliamentary tug-of-war, inevitably open to surprises and frustrations. The rupture, more rhetorical than concrete, could be a way to force and compel the public to address issues that remain elusive. Together, he hints at moving closer to the right, something he's done before: it's part of the game. But is he really willing to form a stable majority with Vox wherever it is, and here with the Catalan Alliance?
In fact, the step Puigdemont is hinting at is aligning himself with the European right, which is increasingly close to legitimizing the far right and sharing governance with them. And here probably lies the crux of the matter. Caught in the logic of give and take, Junts is now making itself known with a gesture that places it directly on the path to normalizing the Catalan Alliance and its allies, like most of the European right. And here Puigdemont serves as an alibi to embellish the shame.
It's hard not to see this step as a democratic setback. I think there's still a clear line: the one that separates the authoritarian right from the democratic parties. And this outburst by Junts seems to be beginning to signal a certain predisposition. Will we see a majority of Vox, PP, and Junts in the Spanish Parliament? And can they really believe it would benefit Catalonia? Surrendering to Puigdemont is nothing more than a display of impotence: mythologizing the past out of an inability to face the future. The need for renewal within Junts is both glaring and urgent.
