The latest CEO study has put numbers to the conversations we've all heard at some point, which anticipate an extraordinary leap for Aliança Catalana in Parliament. When a party's main message is as basic as "Save Catalonia" and it's formulated by a leader who is not at all empathetic, at the head of an unknown team, and yet its electoral expectations soar, it means it has connected with the real or suggested discontents of many people, regarding street insecurity, Islamic radicalism, "massive" immigration, the emigration of well-prepared young Catalans, the decline of the language, or fiscal plundering. And, pay attention, because the diagnosis has found a new centrality where voters from the integrationist Catalanism of Junts and Convergència to the bull-and-Legion Spanish nationalists of Vox have come to coincide. One flag unites them: Islamophobia.
That Aliança Catalana has detected the causes of discontent does not mean it has the capacity to find the remedy. In fact, these types of parties specialize in identifying culprits, but they are not as effective in finding solutions; on the contrary, because the step from harshness to hatred that breaks societies can be very short.
Junts is the main victim of the poll, but not the only one. Independence was a reason to live for many people whom the bitter disunity of Junts, Esquerra, and the CUP has morally harmed much more than the repression of the Spanish state.
The CEO, with an increase of six points in favor of independence, also shows that "The Government of Everyone" is a slogan that is too big for the Catalan executive and that reassurance is not enough, especially when the management is clearly improvable. Many Catalans feel held back; themselves and the country. If they don't find leadership or inspiring projects, they will vote out of disappointment.
