What cannot be will not be
There is a Spanish saying that goes: "What cannot be will not be... and it is also impossiblePolitics, public opinion, and published opinion often express impossible or implausible certainties, but an impossibility is still so for it to be highly desired. For a reality or a right to be confirmed, it takes time to mature until it becomes inevitable. It's absurd and pointlessly tiring; fighting for what is difficult is worthwhile and is the most valuable action of humankind. Leading new ideas requires courage, rowing against the current with energy, patience, and perseverance. Facts, totally diverse but all recent, illustrate these principles.
1) Everyone knew that making a Catalan Tax Agency operational in 2025 was impossible. It wasn't until 2028. Wasn't it more practical for the State Agency in Catalonia to be doubly dependent on the central government and the Generalitat? Isn't presenting the Catalan Tax Agency as a political milestone confusing the public? Of course,
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2) Since the October 2023 attacks, Israel has presented its war in Gaza as an attempt to eradicate Hamas terrorism. Everyone agreed. Now they don't. After 60,000 deaths, the destruction of 80% of Gaza with a population dying of hunger, it is a fact that a genocide is taking place in the strictest sense of the term, the extermination of a human group based on religion or nationality, similar and parallel to what occurred in the Varsò ghetto. This is evidenced by Israel's criminal cynicism, the US approval of Israel's military action, and the EU's fear of being accused of being anti-Semitic, which is rendering it irrelevant.
The situation has a way out, and it is not that far off. All that is needed is for the EU to propose it. The progressive recognition of the Palestinian state by the international community leads the EU to either schizophrenia (saying what it wants to do and doing the opposite) or coherence (doing what it believes should be done). Europe cannot miss the opportunity to lead a political initiative that humanity awaits. The solution will eventually prevail despite the opposition of the US and Israel and despite the difficulties posed by Jewish settler settlements in the West Bank, which in fact consolidate, and seek to do so, an apartheid for Palestinians within a territory that is theirs but has become Hebrew in every sense. In this matter, the sight of malnourished children in Gaza has a power that no propaganda can erase. The photograph of a child from Gaza and one from Auschwitz are synonymous with one another. They should be published side by side, every day, without interruption.
3) The war in Ukraine is a similar example. Europe has the military capacity to change the course of the war. The EU has the weapons and economic capacity, and Ukraine has the human strength to deploy them. No matter how much Putin represses dissent, the Russian population is tired of a war that is neither theirs nor theirs to understand. The obsession with recovering the empire belongs to the president and his government, and that's enough. Today, no one believes that the reason for starting the war was NATO's proximity to Russia. Now, the 1,300 km border that Russia shares with Finland is a border with a new NATO member.
No matter how much Europe fears it, no matter how much comfort and convenience Europe wants to preserve, Ukraine will not lose the war. The wrong and dangerous thing is to prolong it over time because these types of situations make democracies uncomfortable. One more reason to increase Ukraine's defenses. We should ignore the voices that consider Ukraine defeated, such as the French historian Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau. Incidentally, it is always France that accepts defeat prematurely (1940, 1953, 1962, etc.). Russia is a nuclear power and therefore must negotiate. But it is better to do so when it is on the verge of losing the war.
To resolve political problems, they need to be visible, especially in democracies. In Gaza and Ukraine, we are already at that point. The three largest states in Europe: Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, with the help of Spain and Poland, can lead this dual initiative in Gaza and Ukraine. This would give prestige and an image of strength in Europe. Someone once said that Europeans need self-confidence. The opportunity to regain it must not be missed.