"We did not create the Commonwealth to […] give the Catalan soul a small, subordinate, secondary administrative body: a province. We all […] want a state body for Catalonia"
Enric Prat de la Riba, 1917
Catalanism aims to create something similar to a state in Catalonia (a "state body") without having the strength to impose itself on the Spanish state. This condemns it to face the same dilemma over and over again when faced with any political pact that represents the assumption of a responsibility proper to a state: whether to consider it a step in the right direction or a betrayal of the ultimate ideal.
Prat de la Riba clearly marked out the path for his followers: the first option was the right one; to advance step by step, however small these steps might be. Seen through today's eyes, the work of his life, the Mancomunidad, was nothing more than a minuscule "subordinate and secondary administration"; a ridiculous trifle compared to the current Generalitat both in terms of responsibility and budget. For him, on the other hand, it was a transcendental first step.
As is well known, Sabino Arana did not create the PNV inspired by Prat or his party, the League, since the only thing that mattered to him was the independence of Euskadi, and he described Spanish affairs as "foreign policy". However, there is no doubt that the party that has followed Prat's programme with unprecedented tenacity and patience has been and is the PNV. Pujol too, without a doubt (with the nice label of "fish on the horn"), but with a serious temporal limitation: there was no one before him, nor have his followers persevered.
For decades, the PNV's possibilist strategy had to coexist with the breakaway strategy of the Basque left, but today, and without the PNV having moved, it is also rowing in the same direction.
All this is in relation to the two investiture agreements signed by ERC in 2022 (with the PSOE) and in 2024 (with the PSC) that the negotiation on the FLA has brought to the fore.
We recall the facts. In October 2022, ERC and Junts break the government agreement that linked them to the Generalitat, and ERC goes on to govern the Generalitat alone. A year later there are general elections. They are won by the PSOE, which needs support to govern, and the subsequent negotiations are undertaken. Both ERC and Junts prioritize the approval of an amnesty law for the crimes that occurred during the years of the Process, a matter that does not interest us now. What interests us is that ERC debuts in the traditional line of the PNV-Prat: the obtaining of specific improvements. Two stand out: one important and one secondary. The important one is the complete transfer of Cercanías, the secondary one is the forgiveness of part of the Generalitat's debt with the State, and specifically "the assumption of around 20% of the debt […] contracted by the Generalitat of Catalonia with the General Administration of the State […], and will represent around 15,000 million euros of the debt"Both agreements are in the process of being implemented, and this is excellent news. Let me explain.
The commuter train system is important because it constitutes an important service for citizens that is now being provided by the Generalitat. Prat – the Prat of Catalonia-city – would have no doubt about its importance, which is expanding in a world in which the metropolis has become the overwhelmingly majority way of life.
We now move on to the forgiveness of part of the FLA debt, which has finally been reduced to 23%, or €17,104M, exceeding the agreements. To put it bluntly, the fact itself is not significant. On the one hand, because the Generalitat does not consolidate any new responsibility; on the other, because although it gains room for manoeuvre in the short term, the truth is that everyone knew that the debt was unpayable and that the State would have to end up taking over. However, the execution of the agreement is excellent news because it means that the agreements are being fulfilled, which constitutes a precedent for the ERC-PSC investiture agreements, signed in July last year with the backing of the PSOE, on the financing of the Generalitat.
It has been said that the latter are ambiguous. I disagree. They specify two things very clearly: that the Generalitat will collect all state taxes and that, in the subsequent distribution, the principle of ordinality will be respected; that is, that Catalans cannot receive less than citizens of another autonomous region that has contributed less. The first represents a phenomenal step forward in self-government, the second implies a very substantial improvement in the available resources.
No progress will convince those who do not agree with the possibilist strategy. As the person writing this does not believe in any other, I look at events with a cautious optimism that I have not felt for years.
