The "national priority" is us
1. Juanma Moreno Bonilla said he did not want to repeat as president of Andalusia if Vox had to be in the government. In the end, like so many other autonomous communities where the Popular Party won but fell short, Andalusia will also have a coalition government of the right with the far-right. Moreno Bonilla, against his better judgment, has swallowed his principles and had to give in. He has ended up accepting Abascal's positions and now has a vice-president from Vox in his government who corrects him before the investiture. “And what you'll get, my dear”, as they would say in Seville, in another popular expression that must already be close to some red flag.
2. Ideologically, every time Vox uses its seats to enter a government, it imposes its discourse of “national priority”. And the PP accepts it. National priority, to put it bluntly, would be “Spain for Spaniards”. And if there’s anything left over, let the newcomers take advantage of it. For immigrants, the crumbs. To distinguish themselves from each other, they have drafted definitions on the subject that are perceived in the nuances. While for the PP, national priority means rewarding the roots of a territory regardless of nationality, for Vox, Spaniards must be prioritized over immigrants in access to public services. This is the theory because, in practice, they have found an intersection that is an example of wholesale euphemism. After all, access to public benefits and aid will go—they say—according to “real, lasting, and verifiable roots”. And how are roots quantified? With a mix of scales such as time of registration, social ties, and contribution history. In other words, a spark where each case is a world and the quantification is as subjective as it is unclear. They don't give a damn. What matters to them is that an idea remains in the collective imagination: “Spaniards first”.
3. Last week, however, hearing how nervous Aznar became when Feijóo spoke in hushed tones about turning the page on the "Procés" in Catalonia, I returned to a thought that repeatedly crosses my mind. What is, in reality, the "national priority" of these two parties? Catalonia. It's not just that they are worried about secessionism, it's not that they are outraged by the independence movement that risks – in its own way – the unity of Spain. It's that they are bothered by Catalonia, plain and simple. Anti-Catalanism has given them more votes than the fear of immigration. Vox has grown large with Catalanophobia. It grew, exponentially, as a result of being the private accuser in the trial of the "Procés". In the eyes of Spanish nationalists, they were the brave ones who stood up to the independence movement. They are two parties that will continue to put every obstacle in the way of an effective amnesty and that maintain the desire to see Puigdemont arrested and in prison, which is what they want no matter what. Recently, when Junts told the PP that if they wanted anything to bring down Pedro Sánchez, they should go negotiate it in Waterloo, the PP played it down.
4. That the "national priority" is us is demonstrated by the hatred of the Catalan language. Far from seeing it as a richness of a multilingual state, signatures have been requested against it, diplomatic moves have been made so that Europe does not recognize its official status, they have shielded themselves so that it is not spoken in the Senate and, as soon as the PP and Vox rule in Spain, the possibility for deputies to express themselves in Catalan in Congress will be over. Meanwhile, to invest popular presidents in Mallorca, Aragon or Andalusia, agreements are made against Catalan by imposition of Vox and by acceptance of a subservient PP, which says "amen" and has no problem disregarding linguistic science. Whatever it takes to gain power. What has us fed up to the eyeballs is that the same people always benefit.