The dilemma of Together with immigration

You make the laws and leave the regulations to me. The Count of Romanones's famous phrase resonates these days across the Catalan political scene after Junts per Catalunya and the PSOE reached an agreement to delegate certain immigration-related powers to Catalonia. After many months of negotiations and the promise to initiate a comprehensive transfer of immigration powers, including ultimatums and a vote of confidence that was ultimately withdrawn, both parties have submitted a bill to Congress to formalize this delegation, although many questions remain about its actual implementation.

Any powers, even unpopular ones, that allow the Generalitat to gain executive power and self-governance are always welcome, whether in immigration, penitentiary matters, or tax collection. And, as is also the case with the FLA (Spanish National Liberation Front) grant, the amnesty law, and so many other issues, this announcement has set off alarm bells among the Spanish nationalist right. Former President José María Aznar described the agreement as a frontal attack on Spanish sovereignty and stated that it is worse than a declaration of independence, which allowed the most conservative sectors to once again accuse Pedro Sánchez of being a traitor to the country and a hostage to the separatists.

But, as is often the case, the Spanish Socialist government wasted no time in pouring water on the wine shortly after Junts presented the agreement as a major political victory. Vice President María Jesús Montero made it clear that this is a "delegation" and not a transfer, and that, therefore, the responsibility for this responsibility will remain exclusively with the State, with the possibility that this delegation could decline in the future. And the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to calm the Civil Guard and the National Police, assured that these forces will not lose any of their functions and that the Benemérita (Benemérita) will continue to put the final stamp on any procedure.

This watering down of the agreement's effective content makes it difficult to understand the true significance of the pact and how it increases Catalonia's self-government at the expense of the Kingdom of Spain's sovereignty over borders. And if that weren't enough, it's also far from clear that this organic law will ultimately be approved. To pass, it needs an absolute majority in Congress, and Podemos deputies have shown themselves opposed to supporting it while handing out racist cards. Without these votes, the delegation of powers could remain a dead letter.

It's hard to imagine that Junts hadn't anticipated this scenario and that they don't know that the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) tends to water down any agreement once the media headlines fade. Therefore, it's likely that one of Junts' objectives with this pact is to focus on immigration, an issue that, in electoral terms, allows them to compete for space within the Catalan far right. According to several opinion polls, Sílvia Orriols has managed to make inroads into the segment of the pro-independence electorate most concerned about immigration, and Junts, as the main loser, is forced to make a move if it doesn't want to lose territorial representation in the upcoming municipal elections.

In the current political landscape, Junts seems to feel trapped in that labyrinth. If it adopts a more belligerent approach to immigration, it reinforces and legitimizes the discourse of Sílvia Orriols and the Catalan Alliance, but if it ignores this underlying issue, a portion of its electorate may feel that the party is out of touch with their concerns. Pacts, explicit or covert, with the Catalan Alliance will be a strategic dilemma for Carles Puigdemont's party, which will have to decide how far it is willing to go to prevent the flight of votes to the far right. Meanwhile, in that same orbit, some long-standing Catalan nationalists have sought to establish a profile. Former President Jordi Pujol recently stated that forming a pact with the Catalan Alliance would be a grave mistake, since, in his opinion, if the party's ethnicist thesis triumphs, Catalonia could cease to exist as a national project.

Time will tell whether this delegation of immigration powers will have real effects or is merely a calculated move to bolster a specific political narrative. What seems less certain is that the scope of the proposed law will have a bumpy ride and an uncertain outcome. La Trinca sang this more than forty years ago with that legendary song. There is nothing like the Far-west, which still sounds relevant today: "When it comes down to it, pale-faced treaties are always worthless.".And if the law is passed, someone else will draft the regulations, with the permission of the Constitutional Court.