Any information that alters the perception of reality is news. A CEO poll has become an event because it attributes to Aliança Catalana an unusual jump from 2 seats to a range of 23-25 (third force). A punishment for Junts that has just been rounded off with ERC's conversion into the second force. The PSC, with a certain setback, continues to lead the situation. The left of the left, Comuns and company, remains in limbo.
The poll has caused a stir. It has an explanation: since the election of President Illa, in the aftermath of the Process, there had been a widespread feeling of a decrease in tension in Catalonia, a period of reflection after the great upheaval, while in Spain the decibels were soaring with Vox pressuring the PP and with a deployment of judicial actions against the government and its environment, with the political and media right unleashed, which has put judges at the center of the scene.
Catalan calm in the face of Hispanic excitement. And now it turns out that, in the background, things are not so different. Suddenly, as in almost all of Europe, we observe the current trend: the radicalization of the right, capitalized by the far-right, with the criminalization of immigration and the exaltation of national essences. Citizens are hooked on it and some voters end up preferring the model – which deploys the neo-fascist paraphernalia without complexes – over the copy. And Catalonia is no exception: Aliança Catalana is beginning to drag voters from the nationalist right to conquer hegemony in the conservative space. Sílvia Orriols capitalizes on the bewilderment of the Junts voters, trapped in the Puigdemont impasse (when you fall into the pit of the past it is very difficult to get out), and at the same time opens a duel between Catalan and Hispanic neo-fascism, clearly outclassing Vox, which has a more limited space here. In other words, neither Catalonia nor Spain are free from the authoritarian offensive that is sweeping across Europe. Can they resist as an exception to the reactionary cycle?
The threat of the far-right is real and European right-wing parties are falling, one after another, into the temptation of post-democratic authoritarianism. In fact, in Spain, the Feijóo-Abascal tandem is already a reality. The Andalusia pact culminates the first phase of the PP's submission process to Vox's demands. And the pressure of Aliança Catalana on Junts, which has been navigating without a map or guide for a long time, will put Catalonia to the European test. How long will it be before we see Aliança Catalana and Junts partnering up?
