There are many ways to divide Catalonia, but the most naive is the one that draws a line between "real Catalonia" and all invented or synecdochic Catalonias. There are people who believe they have discovered the DNA of authentic Catalanism at the Feria de Abril, organized by the powerful and doped lobby of Andalusian entities, where the rebujito and flamenco are starting to clash with the mojito and reggaeton (because, for the defenders of real Catalonia, plurality is synonymous with hispanicity and nothing more). From which it can be deduced that, if by an improbable migratory phenomenon, half a million Catalans were to move to live in Andalusia and a casteller group called Los Chiquitos de Fuengirola were formed there, a 4 of 9 with folre i manilles would be as Andalusian as the pilgrimage to El Rocío.It is as absurd to put the April Fair into the bag of Catalan culture as it would be to put the Oktoberfest and flamenco begin to stumble over the bourgeois.For this reason, the failure of the sovereignist process, with the marvellous swan song that was October 1st, constitutes a national drama: it was the occasion for Catalonia to take a step forward in a climate of democratic celebration and respect for plurality that had nothing to do with the system of punishment and repression that successive Spanish governments have imposed before and since. An independent Catalonia, or at least more sovereign, could it have managed its plurality better than it currently does? Resoundingly, yes. But the weakness of the sovereignist leaders and the inflexibility of the Spanish powers made impossible a country agreement, democratic yet plural, regarding individual and collective identities.That failure was not only of the sovereignists, but of the whole country, and also of a Spanishness(that of the real Spain?) which in the end needed the police and the judges to prevail. Now we are paying the consequences. We have public services in a mess, a situation of plunder that no one bothers to deny, and a vital but increasingly minoritized language. And above all, we have a disillusioned native element, which has lost the generosity of October 1st, and which in part has allowed itself to be seduced by the siren songs of the far-right. After the victory of batons over ballot boxes, did anyone expect anything else? It is very curious that those who most exclaim about the 'orriolista' rise are those who have made it grow, by subordinating Catalan identity to Spanish identity and beheading the democratic sovereignist parties, with a cynically conformist shrug of the shoulders –it's the market, friend–. And they will call us supremacists... How dare they!

In a country that is doing badly, with a minority Generalitat government and too many open fronts, one might think that Catalan sovereignty has a window of opportunity to regain prominence and raise the level of national ambition. Instead, the parties that led the Procés – Junts and ERC – are competing in their own ring, in a bubble that only interests their leaders, and setting aside national interest, which is what could truly propel them electorally. It is one thing that there is no strategic unity; and another is that the weekly squabbles between Rufián and Nogueras occupy the space and time that their respective parties should dedicate to taking advantage of the weakness of the PSC and the PSOE.This week, Junts has seized media prominence with a double refusal. The first – voting against the housing decree – is difficult to understand in a context of housing emergency, especially considering that the PSOE and Sumar were willing to negotiate fiscal measures for small landlords and self-employed workers. That Puigdemont's party has been so inflexible is explained by temperamental reasons (taking revenge on Yolanda Díaz for her theatrics) and tactical ones (making themselves valuable to the Catalan economic right). It is legitimate for Junts to want to regain the center-right space, but doing so at the cost of tenants' suffering is, at the very least, insensitive. Future elections will tell them if the gamble has been successful or not.It is more incomprehensible that Junts opposes the State-Generalitat investment consortium, a measure agreed upon by ERC with the PSOE to prevent unexecuted investments (systematically and scandalously) by successive Spanish governments from being lost. This can only be explained by absurd maximalism and by the desire not to give any success to adversaries, even if it reduces the Generalitat's resources and decision-making power. Furthermore, the terminology used by Nogueras (“We don't need another little stall”) seems more appropriate for other political options.However: instead of taking advantage of this slip-up to present themselves as the party of useful sovereignty, ERC has preferred, once again, to leave its narrative in the hands of Gabriel Rufián, who has turned it into a very low-tone comedy in the Congress tribune, focusing only on the housing issue (as if the investment consortium issue were too “local” for his audience) and engaging in unnecessary mockery of Junts deputies, which has allowed them to portray themselves as victims. And the Junts circle has upped the ante by comparing Rufián to Albert Rivera, and his discourse, to the logic of "A por ellos". Each episode of this farce is worse than the last. And meanwhile, the ERC leadership remains silent. Rufián gains and loses votes, we don't quite know to what extent, but his one-sided hostility torpedoes one of the party's assets: the ability to maneuver between the PSC and Junts, depending on the area of decision and the circumstances.I have always thought that Junts and ERC are two parties too consolidated for sovereignty to do without them. But a moment comes when it is legitimate to ask whether these kindergarten fights, which have been going on for a decade, are not a major obstacle – not to say the main obstacle – for a sovereignty that, at a social and popular level, shows much more maturity than its political representatives. We could say, as Estanislao Figueras did in 1873, that we are fed up with all of us. If this civil war continues (and it will continue as long as neither party is capable of devouring the other), perhaps one day it will have to be considered. Because parties are just tools, and in any trade, useless tools are either repaired or thrown away.

Our national blue monday is on September 12, 1714. According to chronicles, Barcelona opened its gates to the Franco-Spanish troops and the Duke of Berwick was surprised to see that the Barcelonians were working in the shops and workshops as if it were any other day: a moving example of tenacity. For me, the saddest day of the year is usually the day after Sant Jordi, when the aroma of roses and the bustle of writers and readers fade away, when the banners are folded and put away, and language and culture retreat again after a brilliant day of prominence. On April 24th, we realize that Sant Jordi is a mirage while the dragon continues to wag its tail. This year, despite everything, I have the feeling that something is stirring. Perhaps because of the success of Correllengua, perhaps because Òscar Andreu has conquered the podium with his Manual for the Defense of Catalan, or perhaps because believing is wanting to believe, but I detect a progressive linguistic awareness around me. It is a feeling that exudes anxiety, but also conviction. The emergency situation that Catalan is experiencing has contributed to visualizing the risks of an economic, political, and cultural model that, gradually but constantly, uproots us, dilutes us, and impoverishes us as a community. And it is not only Catalan speakers who notice this, but also many newcomers who, regardless of their linguistic choice, love the country and want it to continue being what it is. We must be smart enough to discern, among the enemies, these possible allies. And be inflexible with the rest. Òscar Andreu says: “Social bilingualism is a trap by those who demand that you be bilingual so that they can continue to be monolingual.”Language must be the battle of our lives. My parents' generation had the challenge of recovering democracy and autonomy, and they succeeded. My generation doubled down with the independence process, and did not have the same success. And the fight for language will be the great challenge for new batches of citizens. A titanic challenge steeped in history, because Catalan has been spoken in this country for a millennium, and it has been language that has forged us as a territory and as a country. The conservation –and expansion– of Catalan is a challenge as difficult as, or more difficult than, the preceding political struggles, because it implies a personal, daily, tenacious commitment. Not only from those who maintain Catalan, but from those who, sooner or later, will have to join it. Everything depends on the firmness of some, the empathy of others, and on policies as demanding with the native language as they are in all the countries of our environment.

It's not just the sun and the beach. Nor the gastronomy. Nor Gaudí. Barcelona is now also showing its magnetism to representatives of world progressivism. Pedro Sánchez has summoned them, and one cannot deny him either cunning or the gift of timing, making the aura of an international anti-Trump leader eclipse his domestic version, which is much grayer and more questioned. If the game board is the world, I am with Sánchez and against Trump, for the record. I am with him completely (the choice is not that difficult). But the view from within is different. Sánchez reminds me of Gorbachev during perestroika, acclaimed in the West, unpopular in Russia. Sánchez can play with better cards than old Gorby, who managed a ruined empire; but he has justice breathing down his neck, and the PP-Vox duo lurking him in the polls. It is understandable that he prefers to exploit his statesman profile. With what ease he acts as spokesman for world pacifism, and installs himself on the “right side of History” with Xi Jinping (Thursday) and Lula (Friday). Meanwhile, in the domestic sphere, the right grows on the shoulders of the ultras, the true left becomes smaller and smaller, despite Rufián's efforts, and the center does not exist. A Russian roulette scenario.If nothing else, the Catalan issue (which occupied the headlines last decade) is no longer causing problems. The proof: This weekend of progressive tourism in Barcelona. Because Barcelona, like Catalonia, has outsourced the management of its brand and its role in the world. The Spanish government now takes care of it, while Illa and Collboni act as cheerleaders. For Sánchez, being seen in Barcelona is very useful, not only to show that we have returned to the fold, but also because ours is a much more left-wing city than Madrid (and than Spain as a whole). Barcelona is the great refuge of the PSOE, which appropriates it, uproots it, isolates it from its hinterland, and turns it into an alternative capital. Of Spain, of course. A more plural Spain than that of the PP? Undoubtedly! But let's not kid ourselves: This weekend's spectacle is designed from Madrid to project the PSOE's Spain around the world. Primarily from the Latin American world. This is why all these summits use Spanish orally and in writing, ignoring the native language and the lingua franca. Barcelona, needless to say, looks divine, but it is only a backdrop. And the Generalitat, a silent guest. Did you know, by the way, that the Generalitat has a Ministry of Foreign Relations?Readers of a certain age may recall, although it may seem incredible now, when King Juan Carlos I entered the Olympic stadium to inaugurate the 1992 Games while Els segadors was playing over the loudspeakers. Internal balancing acts were being performed in those days. Olympic diplomacy emerged from a creative tension between the city council and the governments. Independence was an abstraction, almost like now, but we were playing at appearing to be a country, and Barcelona could act as the capital of Catalonia, and the capital of the Catalan language, because for many of us it was much more than a backdrop. This weekend, Catalans find themselves at the epicenter of world politics, but we have been reserved the role of butlers and ushers.I imagine that to the more cosmopolitan readers this kind of complaint will seem unbearably provincial. I apologize. With a final plea: Next week, let us at least enjoy Sant Jordi in peace. We already know that all over the world April 23rd is Book Day, plain and simple. But it turns out that in Catalonia – only in Catalonia – we call this day Sant Jordi, and it is also the day when Barcelona and Catalonia, hand in hand, project themselves to the world. It is only one day; we will see to it that it passes quickly.

Pío Cabanillas' outburst is often cited, who in the years of the Transition, leaving a stormy UCD congress, said “We have won, but we don't know who”. Something similar happens to current Catalan politics when talking about unity. We want unity, but we don't know whose. We know we have to unite, but we don't know what or whom we are referring to when we talk about us.Unity is one of those big words that, like progress or freedom, become empty concepts when they are mishandled by the political class. In general, when a leader advocates for union, they conceive of it as a concentration of forces around themselves. And that, of course, has little to do with authentic unity, which implies mutual approach, concession.I am one of those who think that unity is a false dogma that is often contrasted with division, when its opposite, in fact, is plurality. And in democracy, plurality is necessary. It is the inevitable starting point for reaching consensus, broad majorities: another type of unity, which does not imply uniformism and does not generate vetoes.In Catalonia, this kind of unity based on pluralism is necessary. Because the country has very serious problems and demands far-reaching reforms, which are impossible with a too atomized Parliament, and with a growing presence of the far-right. And this implies forming transversal majorities, which overflow the boundaries between left and right, and between sovereigntism and Spanish nationalism. I will be more precise: there are a series of issues (language, health, education, infrastructure) that should be based on a strategic agreement between the PSC, Junts, ERC, and Comuns. They are the formations that can guarantee an operational parliamentary majority.

The recent visit of the Roja to Catalonia was not a publicity success, to put it mildly. Despite the efforts of the Catalan and Spanish governments, the federative world, and the platforms of Spanish activism, the very sad exhibition of fascist and xenophobic nationalism in the stands of the Cornellà stadium made it clear that the Spanish team, in Catalonia, runs the serious risk of being turned into an icon of the far-right. From a marketing point of view, it is a defeat for the reencuentro that the PSOE and PSC represent. They had a fabulous toy in their hands: a young, talented team full of Catalans sheltered by common symbolism and without competition (because the law prohibits Catalonia from competing officially, and Catalan athletes risk severe sanctions if they refuse to represent the Spanish team). But now, the Roja can go from being a symbol of cool Spanish nationalism to a refuge for torrentismo.States with conflicting identities have understood the usefulness of sport. The efforts that Spain dedicates to it, as a safe haven for patriotism, demonstrate that in Madrid they know that real power does not consist only of money, army, and Penal Code; it is also expressed in visibility and sentiment. In Catalonia, surprisingly, no Catalan party has the issue of sports teams at the top of its priority list, which is perhaps the only loophole that can allow us to exist nationally and be recognized internationally, basic conditions for everything else to come. Instead, we have to settle for playing a friendly against Palestine, with a spotless atmosphere, that's true; but without competitive value, without our stars on the field, and with the suspicion of the stagnant Catalan federative world.While Junts and ERC have the power to influence the socialists, they should play this card strongly, which is the authentic burden of proof of the State's plurality. Sharing competencies and resources is very well, but the true answer to identity diversity is to share, also, symbolic presence. It is very difficult, from the outset, for the PSOE to accept this (as much as amnesty, perhaps). But I would say that Pedro Sánchez is glimpsing that his survival against the PP-Vox bloc depends on a lasting understanding with the defenders of plurinationality.There are ways to tackle the issue avoiding fractures or impossible dilemmas: to begin with, for example, Catalonia could compete in European championships, and integrate into the Spanish team in world or Olympic competitions. Or it could have its own teams in sports with more roots and tradition, such as rugby, hockey, and water polo. I'm just speculating; I don't know enough to say which is the best solution. But I believe that if politicians intend to represent the broad majority of the Catalan population, a hybrid solution of this kind must be reached.We are a country that, despite the recent emergence of the homegrown far-right, has shown great generosity and great flexibility in managing its own diversity. Therefore, those of us who feel nationally Catalan deserve to exist politically – and, therefore, sportingly –. We think that in the next football World Cup, if Spain wins, there will be people celebrating in the streets of Barcelona... but there will also be people celebrating if Argentina wins, or Morocco wins. And the world won't end, because diverse Catalonia is that. But, if it turns out that in Catalonia everyone celebrates their goals except the Catalans, what the hell kind of diversity is that?

In the nineties, Jordi Pujol was asked in an interview about the validity of Torras i Bages' quote (“Catalonia will be Christian or it will not be”). “What can be affirmed is that Catalonia will be Catalan or it will not be – he replied–. It will be something else, but it will not be Catalonia”. Three decades later, we must ask ourselves if the terms Catalonia and Catalan have the same meaning, and if we are on our way to being that “something else”.What characterizes a national community? There are basic conditions – a population with group consciousness, and a more or less stable territory – that Catalonia has met for more or less a millennium. But its territory has stretched and shrunk, and its population has undergone continuous mutations due to migratory flows (from Occitania, from the Peninsula, from the rest of the world). If the country has survived, until the 18th century, it is thanks to the integrating factor of its own language and government institutions. And in recent centuries, quite the contrary, it has been the absence of political structures that has given a new spirit to Catalan identity, a profoundly apolitical and even antipolitical spirit – which is expressed in a community and entrepreneurial spirit, but also in cyclical revolts and the inability to understand the modern sense of the exercise of power. In these thousand years, there has been a dynamic, changing, porous Catalan people, rooted enough to absorb new contingents of population; but from the 20th century onwards, demographic weakness, combined with high economic development and the lack of a protective political framework, has caused this precarious balance to break, Catalan to lose its hegemony, and identities to separate or overlap. At the turn of the 21st century, new waves from all corners of the world have complicated this trend, which, if it is already a trial by fire for any national community, is even more so for a small nation, which not only does not have its own state, but is in constant conflict with a state of homogenizing tendencies. Catalonia has overcome crises, revolts, wars and, since 1714, a denationalizing offensive on all fronts. If this is the case, why shouldn't it survive the current circumstances? Well, because they are unprecedented circumstances. Until now, we said that the Catalan people have survived oppression without governing tools, but what is now in question is, on the contrary, whether these same tools can survive without a Catalan people behind them, as we have understood it in recent centuries. Catalan people has survived oppression without governing tools, but what is now in question is, on the contrary, whether these same tools can survive without a Catalan people behind them, as we have understood it in recent centuries. Demographics are cold and relentless, and no matter how many political tools we have, people are people, with their extraordinarily diverse origins. Faced with this reality, we will only be able to continue affirming, with Pujol, that “Catalonia will be Catalan or it will not be” if we are capable of refounding our collective being, preserving our roots, incorporating new blood, and providing ourselves with values and a project that strengthens and incorporates. But this is such a huge, so titanic, undertaking that we cannot do it with one hand tied behind our backs: we need a state that gives us a frame of reference, resources, and authority to manage inevitable social and demographic changes at the right pace. The first step to get there is the strategic unity of all democrats who consider that Catalonia must continue to exist as a nation. Without sectarianism and without reproaches. Otherwise, our shipwreck in the face of the globalizing wave is guaranteed. It is no longer a question of being a better country, as we said ten years ago. It is a question of being:Catalonia will be sovereign... or perhaps it will not be. It will, in effect, be something else.

Perhaps the worst move by the Isla administration so far is the phantom agreement reached with the teachers' unions. This agreement, which only involved the minority unions in the sector—UGT and Comisiones Obreras—was nevertheless announced with great fanfare, hailed as "historic," and given extraordinary publicity. This left teachers feeling not only neglected but also mocked, thrown to the wolves by a public opinion all too receptive to the caricature of the teacher who takes two months of vacation and then complains. It was a tactically disastrous move because it left the major unions no option but to demonstrate their strength in the streets, in the most forceful way possible.

The Italian satirical journalist Michele Serra has made a name for himself with this quip: "Americans are very lucky: whenever they go to export freedom to a country, they always find oil." The phrase leaves us with a wistful smile, because it masks a cruel description of a decadent and criminal power. Trump's USA, in coalition with the militaristic government of Israel, and the vassalage of its far-right satellites in Europe and Latin America, has become a global threat. And since they are the most powerful country in what we still call Western civilization, they leave us all, as Catalans and Europeans, in a state of helplessness and bewilderment, observing a geopolitical battlefield where ideas and principles are no longer the focus, but rather a group of unscrupulous old men vying for influence over petty squabbles.

Shortly after the 2023-24 election cycle, which granted regional and municipal power to the PSC, I wrote in this newspaper that the Socialists would occupy the center of the Catalan political chessboard for a long time, and that their rivals should concentrate on replacing fragmentation with regrouping, at least from a tactical point of view. I even wondered if Catalan sovereignty had already reached its Alamo. That is, at the point where the only option is to close ranks and dig in against a stronger enemy. At that moment, it seemed to me that this desperate solution was premature, because it meant abandoning decades of inclusive Catalanism with a desire for hegemony.

When the coup of February 23rd took place, I was a young boy in high school. At home, we heard President Pujol's speech on the radio, and my father's comment—"Just like Companys in 1936!"—didn't help to calm the family atmosphere. Then the king spoke, and we understood that the tried It had failed. But the truth, with all its twists and turns, has gradually come to light as the key figures of that era have given their accounts. Books and documentaries have added—or removed—layers of mystery. And this week, ironically coinciding with Tejero's death, that chapter of historical memory has been officially closed with the declassification of official documents. As Javier Cercas predicted, there has been no sensational revelation. Perhaps because many documents were destroyed; perhaps because many things, who knows if the most important ones, were never written down.

The fact that Barcelona is hosting the Goya Awards ceremony shortly after the recent Gaudí Awards gala is yet another episode in the culture war between two visions of Barcelona and its role in Spain. This battle, on a political level, can be likened to that between sovereigntists and federalists. The former want Barcelona to act as the capital of Catalonia and the Catalan language; that is, to be the capital of the region. as if it were capital of a state, to guarantee the survival of the national identity. The latter group intends for Barcelona to embrace its share of Spanish capital status without reservation, in order to maximize its potential and contribute to a more pluralistic understanding of the Iberian Peninsula.

We've read very different versions of the true meaning behind the maneuvers of Gabriel Rufián, the voice of ERC in Madrid, who has managed, through his own merits, to place himself in the Spanish media spotlight. He himself maintains that his is an honest effort to stop the foreseeable rise to power of Vox and the PP with an alliance of Sumar, Podemos, and the plurinational left. Period. Some believe that Rufián is acting independently, without the support of his party, and that his real objective is to ensure he remains the lead candidate, in contrast to those sectors that consider him a "soft" separatist, whose mission—or assignment—is to dilute the party's maximalist discourse. There are also those who claim that Oriol Junqueras is delighted that Rufián "complements" the official ERC discourse with a narrative more palatable to the non-separatist sectors that until now voted for the PSC or Comuns. And finally, there are the suspicious ones who believe that Rufián is preparing his political future outside the ERC party to become one of the leaders of the new Spanish left, which is in yet another process of reconfiguration.

An old adage advises joining the enemy if you cannot beat them. In terms of compolIf the enemy's values ​​are better than yours, get closer. And if your own values ​​bother you, apply them to the enemy. Thus, the classical right has sidelined its key concepts—order, property, family, etc.—in order to appropriate the term freedomAlthough for two centuries this magic word has guided all revolutions against the old regime. First, it was appropriated by the liberals, in the name of laissez faire economic. And now they're doing it. libertarians, Trump's followers, who obviously have nothing to do with old libertarian anarchism, but with hatred of the state in the face of the market, erected as guarantor of the rights of individuals.

Spain remains at a crossroads when debating the Civil War. Arturo Pérez-Reverte has organized a series of debates in Seville with the less-than-ideal title 1936: The war we all lost (In the end, they put the slogan in question marks to soften the blow of criticism.) The writer David Uclés, who had committed to attending, withdrew upon learning that José María Aznar and Iván Espinosa de los Monteros would be participating. And the inevitable backlash on social media, including threats of boycott, precipitated the cancellation of the conference. Pérez-Reverte lamented the lost opportunity for the "reconciliation" of Spaniards. But the best way to come to terms with the past is to accept it, and accepting the Civil War means admitting that there were victors and vanquished, and that the victors behaved as such long after the guns fell silent.

This week horribilis For the railway system and for the mobility of Catalans, everyone is digging through the archives to confirm the circular, Sisyphean dynamic of Catalan politics. In 2007, soon to be twenty years ago, a massive demonstration (the first with a profusion of Catalan independence flags) denounced the infrastructure deficit. In the same year, the economic elite held a major event at IESE Business School to demand the transfer of management of El Prat Airport to the Catalan government. Clear symptoms of the storm that was beginning to brew. We know that history never repeats itself, but we also know that there are some constants in our timeline that are difficult to deny. We could almost quote Francesc Cambó, who proclaimed in the Republican Cortes: "This Parliament will pass, regimes will fall, parties will disappear, but the living fact of Catalonia will endure." The question is to determine what this "living fact" consists of. made alive.

One of the first times I was able to vote was in the NATO referendum in 1986. A brief synopsis for younger readers: Spain joined the Atlantic Alliance in 1981, driven by the dying government of Calvo-Sotelo. It was one of the many concessions paid to the military and the Spanish establishment after the partial failure of the 23-F coup attempt. Felipe González promised to put the issue to a referendum if he came to power. The Catalan and Spanish left had a certain anti-American and anti-militarist bias, a product of the country's recent history: for Western Europe, the Americans were the ones who had defeated Hitler, but in Spain, they were the ones who had protected Franco in exchange for the installation of military bases. The polls indicated that, if a vote were held, the rejection of NATO would prevail. In 1982, the PSOE won with an absolute majority, initiating a rapid shift towards Atlanticism because—as we were told—without NATO, there would be no entry into the European Union. When González finally, dragging his feet, called the referendum, the PSOE defended the affirmative vote. Remaining in NATO won by a narrow margin throughout Spain, although the no vote won in Catalonia, as well as in the Basque Country and Navarre.the same old mapI was twenty years old and I felt my blood boiling, as Serrat sang, and I thought that a great opportunity had been lost to screw over President Reagan, who was a thousand men, and to crack the blog politics.

The regional financing agreement was signed by the PSOE, a party in crisis, and ERC, a party recovering (at least). Interestingly, sometimes a sum of weaknesses yields better results than a sum of strengths. It is not generosity, but necessity, that has allowed them to agree on a series of things that, just a year ago, Minister Montero considered impossible and unconstitutional. Ordinality ad hoc For Catalonia, the extra contribution from the State so that what some gain doesn't cost others, the oxymoron of plural singularity... and what ERC still hopes to obtain: comprehensive management of personal income tax and an investment consortium that retains in Catalonia all the funds not spent in the budget. It's a promising list, but it falls short of what the PSC agreed to in order to secure the votes to invest Isla, and furthermore, the path now beginning will be a true ordeal: Pedro Sánchez will have to defend that agreement against Junts, perhaps against Podemos, against the PP and Vox, against his own party. malesAnd it will do so without María Jesús Montero, offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of the Andalusian elections. We'll see what's left of it all. The clock is ticking.

With the new year, everything evolves, but real politics, the management of public affairs, remains mired in chaos because at the territorial levels that concern us (Barcelona, ​​Catalonia, Spain), governing bodies lack both the strength and the will to think broadly, with a long-term vision; they are prisoners of tactical maneuvering and fragmentation, two great sins of democracy that, a century ago, ignited the flames of fascism. We are falling into the same errors of the past and into familiar traps, while fascists forge their own path by blending into trends, technology, and a kind of counterfactual modernity.

of heart and of skull.