Jordi Corominas i Joan Albert Vicens: Aliança Catalana is the ground zero of the far right

BarcelonaThe philosophers Jordi Corominas and Joan Albert Vicens call to combat the rise of radical right-wing parties with their essay Far-right. What is at stake? (Eumo), in which they provide arguments to debate extremist proposals.

How should the far-right be combatted?

— J.C: The far-right is like a kind of virus that even infiltrates left-wing militants who are adopting its theses. We have written this book to provide tools for both detractors and sympathizers. The most radical way to combat it is to set aside morality and emotions. Security is a left-wing discourse because the disadvantaged are the poor and it must be addressed with public investment.

They talk about not demonizing their voters and addressing the real problems they express.

— J.A.V: The far-right is very good at detecting the population's concerns, but they offer wrong solutions that harm the main victims. The far-right says that people have problems accessing public services due to increased immigration, but then proposes tax cuts that end up harming public services.

What does the far right do when it governs?

— J.A.V.: Wherever they have held power, they have always undermined democracy: the separation of powers, freedom of the press, or judicial independence, and with a dynamic of corruption. They also reduce taxation, especially for those who have more, and there are citizens who have all the privileges and others who have all the obligations, which would be the immigrant population. This society with first-class citizens and second-class citizens is one of the results of far-right policies where it governs.

Is his rise also a failure of traditional parties?

— J.A.V: There is a crisis of liberal democracy that has to do with the loss of the State's capacity to respond to the challenges of globalization. There is a crisis of public services because there has been disinvestment since the economic crisis of 2008. And in a context where parties seem to offer no solutions to people's problems, they offer an anti-system alternative that seduces people because it has not been tested. It is a protest vote from people who feel their problems have not been addressed.

Is the right wrong by enduring its discourse?

— J.C: Totally. Any copy is worse than the original and people prefer the original. When the right has allied with the far-right, as in Germany with Nazism, the far-right has taken absolute power.

Is the sanitary cordon useful?

— J.A.V: If the sanitary cordon means refusing to debate with the far-right, treating them as a bunch of fascists, or ignoring those issues that concern people, it is useless. If the sanitary cordon means not compromising with their policies, then the cordon is correct. When the right raises the issue of security from a police point of view and with expulsions, it is mistaken because it plays into the hands of the far-right, which is soft on the rich and acts tough with the poor.

The far-right says all aid is for immigrants.

— It says that the immigrant is responsible for the collapse of public services, the lack of housing, the malfunctioning of schools, and low wages. The great deception is to make the poor believe that those who are poorer than them are to blame for their situation. The responsibility for this situation lies in a system that does not work and does not provide well-being to the majority of the population. Tax cuts only benefit the upper classes.

The change in the urban landscape also plays a key role in its rise.

— Aliança Catalana is the kilometer zero of the far-right. It is a proximity far-right and has an advantage in Catalonia. We had always thought that the far-right was a matter for Spain and now we see that they have a brutal force here, partly due to this feeling of strangeness, especially with the Muslim world. And they are right when they say that not everyone fits here. But no one comes here because they want to. Neither do Andalusians or Extremadurans, but there they have managed to stop emigration with investments.

Aliança Catalana also feeds on the failure of the Proceßs.

— J.C.: The ARA survey says that 23% of its votes come from Vox. And the same survey says that almost 40% do not consider Aliança Catalana as far-right, but Vox does. That Aliança is the party with the fewest independentist voters explains this transfer of votes. For Aliança, the fight against immigration or security is more important.

Does the emergence of Aliança Catalana break the seams of integrating Catalanism?

— J.A.V: If you adopt an identity-based discourse like Aliança, which frontally rejects 18% of the population of Catalonia, or at least places them at a lower level of Catalan identity and social rights, you are renouncing the real country we have.

It also makes an independentist majority in Parliament unviable.

— J.C: One of the left's temptations can be to strengthen it for its own benefit, but this is a short-term business and will destroy the country. The left must build bridges so that the democratic right does not go to the other side. Together, they run the same risk as the PP, which increasingly resembles Vox. And that is the great danger.

Is the emergence of Aliança Catalana good news for the State?

— J.A.V: For the State, I don't know, but for Spanish nationalism, yes. It is dividing the independence forces and this dual Catalonia, with citizens who have all the rights and others who only have duties, breaks any illusion that the independence project can serve to engage real Catalonia.