Catalonia as an alien land

The most surprising thing about Rajoy's attitude towards the independence process is his complete disconnection from Catalonia

Josep Ramoneda
3 min
El president espanyol, Mariano Rajoy, al Congrés de Diputats després del debat d’investidura.

1. TWO ROADS. Former PSOE leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said in Madrid on Monday that "independence is a grand project", that "the right to decide is a magnificent slogan", that "you can't respond to it only with the law and the Constitution", and that "the State and all of us who represent it have neglected our responsibilities; we lack a project for Catalonia". A judgment that arrives late, now that Rubalcaba has no responsibilities either in the government or in his party. If he saw this before, why did he align himself unconditionally with the PP from the very first moment? And why has Pedro Sánchez, his successor as leader of the socialist party, done the same thing as soon as he has been chosen to lead the PSOE again?

Although they are now presenting a united front against the Catalan independence movement, the relationship between the PP and the PSOE and Catalonia has been very different historically. The PP has always been marginal in Catalonia. The Francoist right never gelled politically in Catalonia during the Transition, and a good part found a home in Convergència. When Aznar achieved the great unification of the Spanish right, everyone already had their place in Catalonia and the PP never emerged from its secondary role. So much so that Rajoy's answer to the independence movement was to hand the reins of the regional party to an authentic representative of the far right in García Albiol. In other words, one option for resistance: to ensure the loyalty of the hardcore followers.

The PSOE is a different kettle of fish. Its merger with the PSC in 1977 made it the leading party in Catalonia: the alliance between a federation linked to the working class of the outskirts of Barcelona and elements of the enlightened bourgeoisie worked. Later, a well-organized maneuver from Madrid --the Tarradellas operation-- and some errors of strategic perception led to Pujol winning the regional elections against all odds (although Felipe González predicted it clearly a couple of months earlier). And the socialists naively handed him the reins by refusing to govern in coalition. Since then, non-competitive bipartisanship --each with their own space-- developed under the Pujol-Maragall dialectic (or Catalonia-nation vs. Catalonia-city, if you prefer) until the Pujol regime ran its course and both blocs came out damaged, without realizing it.

The emergence of the independence movement in the 2003 campaign, which soared from 2010 on, left the two groups, CiU and PSC-PSOE, clearly out of kilter. The socialists were left without a game plan for Catalonia, orphaned after Maragall's leadership, and fell into disarray. The power of words is very important in politics and the PSC grabbed hold of a shopworn figure: federalism. Now they have to take sides with the PP. Catalonia has become an opaque territory for them.

2. A DESTINY. Opaque for some, the socialists, and alien for others, the PP. It likely happened so naturally that they didn't even notice in Madrid, but the most surprising thing about Rajoy's attitude towards the independence process is his absolute disconnection from Catalonia. At no time has the PP given the sensation of feeling involved in what is happening here. Rajoy speaks of Catalonia as if it were a distant territory that for some strange circumstances is under his jurisdiction. As such, any approach is presented as an exceptional event, a maneuver that carries its own built-in failure with it. Thus, the highly publicized Operation Dialogue at the beginning of this year lasted about as long as it takes to shoot off a rocket. And business leaders are left dumbfounded when the president who has done nothing asks them to abandon their neutral position. The question asked by Rubalcaba has an answer: Why has no alternative proposal been made to the pro-independence project? Because they view it as an alien land and don't know how to go about it. And in the face of that, it's easier to fall back on "the empire of the Law". If they don't think of it as their own, maybe seeking out a peer-to-peer relationship would be the best solution (and there are unexplored avenues such as that of an associated free state). But they can't accept that: it's a question of principle-- that is, of power and possession. And neither do they feel confident enough to do what Cameron did: go to Scotland to do politics. And win.

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