With the government of President Salvador Illa, our Trajan, we have entered a period of Pax Autonómica. Salvador Illa, who not only respects but also loves the Spain of the 1978 Constitution, proposes stability and order at home and security abroad, like the Pax Romana. It's about guaranteeing the confidence the Catalan economy needs so that companies can take their own risks, whether that means pleasing the rest of Spain's autonomous regions and the government in Madrid to avoid conflict. Serenity and harmony. It's a commitment that has been rewarded electorally after the failure of the secessionist attempt in 2017. The PSC government is so moderately social democratic that it comfortably occupies the center of the political map, and if it weren't for the national question, it could form a grand coalition with Junts.
A weakened ERC party, both internally and electorally, decisively contributes to Pax Autonómica, which has no choice but to swallow all the toads it itself puts on the negotiating table. From financing singular, which if it ever amounts to anything will be even more so for others, even down to the failed agreement to transfer the Cercanías (Commuter Rail) system, which will only serve to swallow the anger of commuter train users and the responsibility for the state's historical laxity in investment. ERC has no other room for maneuver—with Junts they are and always will be like oil and water—and no matter how much the PSC makes it as pleasant and palatable as possible for the public, its negotiating posturing will be discredited over time.
To the left of the PSC and ERC, there is only extreme ideological, populist, and even anti-political rhetoric, essential when the fragmentation of the political landscape makes it necessary. And if it weren't for the sympathy and condescension with which certain media outlets tend to treat it, its inconsistency and irrelevance would be evident. I mean irrelevance when it comes to governing, but not when it comes to imposing a highly tainted Catalan public discourse, one of paternalistic and controlling statism, which is the fuel that fuels the no less populist reaction of the extreme right.
The beatific dream of the current Pax Autonómica is only partially hindered by Junts, but paradoxically, they are participating from within. In part, this is because their leader is still in exile and full peace cannot be achieved until he returns, nor will it be possible to know the definitive role of President Carles Puigdemont, whom no one sees as leading the opposition. In part, also, this is due to Junts' discomfort at having been born as a rehash of a moderately convergent past and a transversal independence expectation, now frustrated and without a future. As I already explained here ("The fatality of being decisive"January 30th), the decisive role of Junts in the stability of the Spanish government is a poisoned gift that, while projecting them politically into the public sphere, simultaneously leads them to as many contradictions as ERC. No matter how much they push them from here—to overthrow them—Junts cannot repeat the mistake of 2000, now facilitating the government of Feijóo's PP.
I wouldn't have described the entire scope of this Pax Autonómica without mentioning Vox—the Spanish populist far-right—the PP—an irrelevant right in Catalonia—and, above all, Aliança Catalana. Of these, it is AC who, despite its small representation, garners the most interest due to the media's obsession with exorcising it rather than understanding it. AC, first of all, is a sign of local normality when seen on international political maps. If, in addition to not throwing papers on the floor, standing pat, and carrying out a revolution of smiles, we wanted to avoid a Catalan populist right, we should certainly be accused of being insatiable. Second, note that AC only began appearing in the media when it was seen as a useful instrument to discredit Junts, presenting them as direct competitors. But the truth is that the transfer of qualified militants from Junts and ERC to AC is well-balanced, and it doesn't seem that assuming responsibilities over immigration policies, exactly the same ones now managed by Sumar, makes Junts any less xenophobic. And, third, what is truly worrying about AC's populism is that it stands up to left-wing populism. But neither Vox, nor the PP, nor even AC shakes President Isla's Pax Autonómica; instead, by contrast, they focus and reinforce it.
The Pax Autonómica has only one weak point: it needs the tightrope walker Pedro Sánchez's PSOE to govern Spain like the air it breathes. Without his juggling act, the PSC's project would lose all credibility, and the consequences for ERC and Junts would be dramatic.
The Pax Romana lasted 200 years...
