Junts is not original in its contemplative approach to Sílvia Orriols' Aliança Catalana. It is what almost all the European right-wing parties are doing, with the worthy exception so far, and may it continue, of German Christian democracy, still imbued with the values of Angela Merkel. There was an agreement with socialists and republicans to kick Le Pen's apprentice out of Ripoll City Hall. Juntos, Puigdemont said, has backed down. Now it is a vertical conglomerate with no right to disagree.
The argument of electoral calculation is tricky. They say that the rejection of Orriols causes a certain shift of votes from Junts towards her. In other words, there is a strong-snouted nationalist sector insensitive to democratic values. Juntos decides to give them a little fish to get them back next time. Will they come back or will they find them? In the times that run through Europe, one begins by winking and ends up becoming familiar: reactionary impulses right now are very accelerated in the change of economic and political regime in which we are immersed.
Power always attracts more than the opposition. But be careful not to play with fire, because you can get scalded. It is difficult to understand that, with Orriols validated as mayor, the turncoat voters return to the house of origin. On the contrary, they will wait for the fulfilment of the wish that has made them move: that the nationalist right-wing parties come together in Ripoll and throughout the country. And as much as Turull puts on a face of disgust when announcing – and trying to legitimise – a decision of petty opportunism, the dynamic is in motion.
Together they break the taboo of the Catalan extreme right, like the majority of the European right-wing parties (starting with the Spanish one) because it is there that they see, in the current times, the most direct possibility of returning to power. And if they give themselves a truce, opting for the recognition of Mayor Orriols, but without going so far as to share power, it is because they trust that next time the pact will be made in spades, in Ripoll and wherever necessary. In the meantime, the majority of the European right-wing parties will have already taken the step. And post-democratic authoritarianism will have given several more bites to liberal democracies. Together they are signing up to the new normality that the right is assuming, one after the other, without too many tics appearing in their faces. The PP is already completing the traffic. It will govern with Vox or it will not govern. And Junts has chosen to get in line. Preventing the Catalan democratic parties from giving a clear warning not only in Catalonia but in Spain and in Europe.
No matter how many justifications are sought, in the current situation putting oneself at the service of the extreme right is irresponsible, which only gives room to the reactionary wave that Trump and company are riding on. And if Puigdemont believes that by paying that fee he is getting closer to regaining power, it could backfire. The electorates are not as captive as some think.
