We are no longer a nation: we are now a periphery. On Friday, May 16, President Salvador Illa gave a conference in Pamplona organized by News Diary and The NewspaperThe president, in one of the stages of his pilgrimage through Spanish territory in which he explained his political project of harmony and reconciliation—and in passing, he sought forgiveness for the sovereignist sin that others had committed—considered Navarre and Catalonia as an example of Spain. peripheral. Literally – nuances are always important – said: "Today, Catalonia is a guarantee of loyalty and institutional cooperation. [...] If we broaden the focus a little, the radius, today it is the plural Spain, some speak of the peripheral Spain, including Navarre, which guarantees stability, prosperity and solidarity for those who have a concept, in my opinion, erroneous, of".
To further support the idea, just three days later the Spanish Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Parliament, Félix Bolaños, in an interview on The Vanguard He claimed that political, social and institutional normalization in Catalonia was already a fact: "Catalonia is back," he said. But if we're back They did believe we were gone. And without batting an eyelid, the minister had the nerve to speak of "full normalization," even though the parliamentary investigation into a Catalonia operation that the Spanish judicial system ignores is still open; when there are still exiles, including a president, and despite the various trials pending for alleged embezzlement. And, as if that weren't enough, when the main commitments that keep the PSOE in government still pending fulfillment. On a rhetorical level, we already knew that power brings complete narrative impunity.
The coincidence of both expressions—Catalonia as a periphery under Isla and Catalonia that has returned to Spain under Bolaños—allows them to reinforce each other and points to the participation of both leaders in the same strategy. The goal is for Catalonia to become Spanish again, provided it loyally assumes its role as a periphery. Now, it seems obvious to me that this Catalonia understood as a periphery loyal to the Spain-nation is the antithesis of a Catalonia-nation. It's true that President Isla dislikes what "hypercentralism" says, but not centralism, so to speak. well understoodBut we ceased to be a nation, unless, of course, we distort its meaning and reduce it to mere folklore. No nation could ever aspire to be considered anyone's periphery. And we must remember that we wanted an independent Catalonia precisely because it had its own sovereign voice in a space international.
I must say, however, that if there's one thing I like about President Salvador Illa, it's that, when it comes to the territorial model he's passionately working towards, he doesn't fool anyone. He has the right to defend it. After all, he won the elections a year ago, and the Catalan Parliament made him president. And he does so without the double talk that has caused so much confusion in the past and still does now. He doesn't care that his electoral support came from 28% of voters—a paltry 16% of the census—or that he achieved it with the support of a party that proclaims itself pro-independence. He has all the institutional legitimacy to try to consolidate the old and moth-eaten model of autonomous Catalonia—which some of us consider a failure—and that's what he pledged to do during his election campaign. What I don't understand about some opposition politicians is that they ask him to do something else instead of explaining the consequences this will have for the future of the Catalan nation, and what and how they would do it if they never returned to the presidency. And what cannot be forgotten is that President Illa's entire house of cards could come tumbling down when the PSOE loses the next elections.
The years of pro-independence mobilization had been brought forward by a greater mental self-centeredness of Catalans. Not by navel-gazing, but by looking at the world—to continue with the expression—from the navel. That is, from their own cultural and political tradition, from their own interests, from a perspective of solidarity—decided voluntarily, not imposed—and from their own project identity. On the other hand, with Isla's peripheral Catalonia, the current process is once again, forcing the expression, of lack of self-centerednessWith the support of all the propaganda machines, the "we" is once again the Spaniards, and the "here" is once again Madrid.regional peculiarity".
