What does it mean to be a (good) Catalan

Is the president of the PP, Alejandro Fernández, as Catalan as the president of Junts, Carles Puigdemont? What about the Catalan identity of Juana Dolores? Is it more or less authentic than Empar Moliner's? In a memorable definition, Jordi Pujol said: a Catalan is someone who lives and works in Catalonia, and wants to be. It is an inclusive definition, certainly, but today it does not withstand even a superficial analysis: is an eighth-generation Catalan who, for whatever reason, does not feel it, still Catalan? Is a Senegalese person, also of the eighth generation, who has been living in Tarragona for ten years and feels more Catalan than Pau Casals... really Catalan? Has one of my daughters, who has been living and working in Seattle for a few years, stopped being Catalan? Are the other two, who are still here, perhaps a little more so? Of them, which one is more Catalan, the one who works or the one who doesn't?Who can tell me what it means to be Catalan?In a ranking of Catalan identity, who would win? The teenage son of a couple from Lleida born and raised in Amsterdam, because both parents work in the Netherlands, but who speaks perfect Catalan with his parents, or the boy born and raised in Mataró, son of a Moroccan-Guinean couple, who only speaks Spanish with his mother? Is the deputy Najat, born in Morocco, Muslim, mother of three children, who covers her head with a veil and is a training technician at the Masnou Town Hall, less Catalan than Sílvia, Catholic, who goes through life with her head uncovered, born in Vic, mother of five children and a library science graduate?Did those immigrants who, last century, came from Extremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, or Galicia, arrive here to disrupt the country, to make it worse? And the Catalans who, in the second half of the 19th century, left by the thousands for abroad? Did they abandon their homeland as cowards do? Are the Catalans from inland, farmers and ranchers, who, driven by hunger and necessity, left their roots to make their fortune in the city, guilty of forgetting the traditions and customs that built the identity of our people?Let's go a little further: who is a better Catalan, Fanny, who came five years ago from Honduras and earns a living for herself and her two daughters by cleaning houses and building entrances, without a contract or social security contributions, charging twelve euros per hour, or Manel, who owns a pig farm in Pla de l'Estany managed by some dark-skinned men [sic] whom he hasn't registered or regularized because they don't have papers?What is an authentic Catalan? Who decides what it means to be Catalan? Is there anyone more qualified than the rest to separate the good Catalans from those who are not so good?

I wouldn't know how to tell you what it exactly means to be Catalan. On the other hand, I have a clear idea of what it means to be a good Catalan politician. A good Catalan politician is one who wants the best for their neighbours, no matter what they think or where they come from. Their job is to make life easier for people, to work to improve their well-being and their opportunities to prosper. In the noble profession of politics, it is not so much about determining identities as it is about managing resources.A Catalan politician needs two things to be good (necessary, but not sufficient conditions). All Catalan politicians could agree on this, because they are two prerequisites for the action of governing.The first: to have powers, the more the better, and resources to manage and deploy them. All parties running in the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia want to govern. And when someone runs in an election, it's because they believe they will do a better job than anyone else. Therefore, if someone believes they embody the best option for governing a country, they must also believe that the more powers and responsibilities they have, the more complete their governing action can be. If one day Vox has to govern us – God forbid – I would a thousand times rather see Ignacio Garriga collecting one hundred percent of the Catalan IRPF than trust that, from Madrid, Santiago Abascal will continue – as until now – sending us the crumbs. I am sure, by the way, that Mr. Garriga also thinks he would know how to manage better in a scenario like this.The second condition, like the first, has to do with competences, but, in this case, with personal ones. We need capable, prepared politicians, with a true vocation for service to the common good and with experience, if possible, in the world of management in the private sector. I will always defend professional politicians, who dedicate their entire lives to public service. But we should not let politics become a guild. The space separating politics and society should be much more permeable: we would all – I am sure – benefit from it.