Jordi Casassas: Aliança Catalana rubs its hands with the division between Junts and ERC

Prada of ConflentThe president of the governing board of the Catalan Summer University (UCE), Jordi Casassas (Barcelona, 1948), speaks to ARA to review this year's edition.

This year's UCE motto is "Now more than ever, Catalan Countries". How have you faced it?

— The UCE is by its essence a defender of the Catalan Countries, now more than ever because the Valencian, Balearic, and Northern Catalonia authorities are particularly anti-Catalan. We can become aware of the danger. Many people in Catalan politics declare that national awareness began at the UCE.

In this edition, Aliança Catalana has been excluded, as in the previous one. Isn't it part of democratic independentism?

— I have not had contact with them. I would not frame it as an exclusion. There is a part of democratic discomfort, and the nature of this group is to self-exclude from the pro-independence political forces and from the debate on independence and the national reality. But I have not debated with anyone about the possibility of inviting them.

Aliança Catalana is vying for second place in the Parliament. How should its emergence be faced?

— I believe no country has achieved independence divided. In Catalonia, if we are not able to move towards tactical unity, we will be dragged along by reality, we will not be protagonists of anything. There has been and there is a squabble between Junts and ERC, but the ghost of Aliança Catalana also does not make them converge. Well then, the people from Aliança Catalana rub their hands.

What is the relationship with the Government?

— The relationship is expectant, we invite counselors who normally do not respond, we request visits and they do not respond to us.

Only councilor Francesc Xavier Vila has participated.

— The relationship does not exist, but I respect them as the government of Catalonia, which is the only one we have. I am willing to sit with any democratic person, Catalan in the sense of loving the country, and work even if they are not my type. President Montilla helped us a lot, but this Generalitat... I don't think they have enough knowledge of what we do.

Does President Rull's commitment to UCE funding contrast with what they receive from the French state?

— Regarding funding, we have gone from 16,000 to 6,000 euros from the region, and from the municipality. In the region, they have a part of the far-right.

How did the celebration of young Catalans, some of them independentists, react to the victory of the Spanish national team in the World Cup?

— Young people want to have fun, and they sign up for things that excite them. Celebrating Spain's victory is not incompatible with being an independentist. Independentism was exciting and young people joined it in droves, because it was exciting and we were all going together.

Immigration has also been a central theme at UCE. What needs to be done to improve integration?

— A large part of the immigrants are South Americans, and they come to the motherland that screwed them over. They speak Spanish and internalize that this is Spain. There are others who understand what Catalonia is. But this immigration has come attracted by the abundance of jobs in services and tourism, which are very poorly paid. Don't explain to these people what we used to say in the 70s, that Catalonia favored social mobility. Therefore, there is a tendency to generate ghettos, which are anti-integration. If there isn't a change in migratory policy and economic model, we will continue to have a problem.