1. We want to believe that Catalonia is different, but when it comes down to it, it ends up generating the same tendencies as the European environment of which we are a part. It seemed that the Catalan far right would never surface, and yet it is currently experiencing accelerated growth, led by Silvia Orriols, who plays the authoritarian card, with anti-immigration rhetoric as her main banner and independence as her objective, thus shattering only a naive belief: that it wasn't pro-Spanish. And it turns out that, yes, as throughout Europe, post-democratic authoritarianism is growing, challenging, and often dragging along the democratic right. This is the problem with the ideological naiveté of assuming that we are better than others and that we will be different because we were victims of Spanish domination.
The logics of power have deep dynamics inscribed within them; radicalization is always lurking, and the extremes find loopholes through which to express themselves. If Vox emerged during a specific period of unrest in liberal democracies, in which radicalism flourished, why should we believe that nothing similar would happen in Catalonia? What could have led us to think we would be any different from the rest of Europe?
The truth is that the far right is already here, on the rise in favor of Orriols, who has managed to grasp the signs of the times and establish her own national profile, distancing herself from Vox. And conservative groups are already setting out to celebrate it.
2. Catalonia, then, is no more immune than the rest. The far right has also emerged with its own distinct framework. Suddenly, this weekend, a meeting between Silvia Orriols and business leaders, headed by Emili Cuatrecasas, brought an unexpected dose of reality. How can sectors of the business world be cozying up to or testing the waters with the far right? Precisely, this is what is happening everywhere. And increasingly so. Right-wing and far-right parties will converge, as we are already seeing in Spain, where in four days Vox and the PP will govern together.
A glance at Europe says it all. And the consequences will be significant. Could Catalonia be capable of keeping the far right isolated no matter what, with compromises among the other political forces? This first public step—there have been other, more discreet ones—of a business sector reaching out to Sílvia Orriols is a warning to the naive. There were those who went, but also those who knew but preferred to remain silent. Clearly, there will be more, and if Aliança Catalana continues to grow, the right wing will gradually close in on it. It will only take the right wing needing their votes at some point to form a majority. Would it be wishful thinking to expect that, in such a situation, conservatives and progressives would come together to leave the far right empty-handed? It would be proof of a democratic sensibility that is fading away in Europe. I don't want to raise false hopes, but I like to leave the door open.
3. Pujolism, while the patriarch set the pace, was so broad-spectrum that it could encompass all sensibilities within the conservative sphere. With Pujol's departure, ambitions began to emerge from all sides. With the momentum of the independence process, the Junts per Catalunya coalition came to include figures and groups from both extremes, from the right but also from the left, although many have forgotten this today. When this escalation was abruptly halted by the frustration of the independence process and the subsequent repression, many disappeared and we haven't heard from them since, while a small core of traditional Convergència members—led by Turull, Batet, and Rull—secured control of the party as an iconic symbol of the Puig factor. But that cycle is nearing its end. Right now, the taboo surrounding Puigdemont's rise has been broken. And a date has already been set: his return. It seems increasingly clear that this will be the moment of its amortization so that the Catalan right can take flight again. And it will be then that the future of the conservative space will be decided: the relationship between Junts and Aliança Catalana.
The fact that some economic sectors are already starting to move is an indication that Catalan money is not insensitive to European impulses. It seems to be time to break the taboo of the far right, which was a legacy of the Second World War. Donald Trump has applied himself with rhetorical and practical excesses that could become a catalyst that makes democratic parties react. But I think that, right now, this is an illusion. The immediate future will be marked by post-democratic authoritarianism, with a growing prominence of the far right. And it is irresponsible to try to sugarcoat its image to sell us a pig in a poke, as the European right does.
