Antonio Franco
Departure of political prisoners from the prison of LLedoners. / MIREIA ARSO / REGIO7
As always, we should be careful when voting. Now there are added reasons. We Catalans have recent experiences that recall how closely linked daily life and its problems, including death from illness and poverty, are with the decisions of those we elect at the polls. Only every four years can we help to maintain a course or change it. Now it’s time to choose.
I think about this after seeing the photo-poster of the nine imprisoned politicians exhibiting themselves when they step out of the prison walls into the street. The image has a little bit of everything, starting with the reflection of the firmness of their convictions. But it also includes the dissimulation of their lack of unity. Some still say “ho tornarem a fer” [We will do it again] now and here, others put their desire to survive professionally governing autonomy until Catalonia becomes something else. They wanted to take us to Ithaca without respecting the laws in force and they tore the country apart perhaps forever; now in the photo they show their aspiration – already more modest – for a non-negotiable amnesty, although the suspicion prevails that they will accept the reasonable and not easy pardon that comes despite their own expectations.
Borràs, consistent with herself
In the photo you cannot logically see how much they think about Illa, who could star in their disaster because he would bring the end of so many seats, salaries and influences under his arm for many of their friends. Nor does Laura Borràs appear, because she has not gone to jail even though she has an ugly trial pending. This ‘postpujolista’ candidate draws attention for promising as an anti-corruption gesture that if she sets up a Government she will veto the hiring of Ibex companies. She is consistent (she is accused of hiring personal friends against the rules; of course, they were not from the Ibex).
The voters have to consider how they will vote. All of them, and among them specially those who usually support the pro-independence crew. May their consciences not forget that their leaders have given rise to that Catalan model without a real president, with an inoperative Parliament and so far un-punished traffic cuts in La Meridiana. And with a record in Spain – although they do not like this word – of deaths in nursing homes when the Covid arrived. Now voters have in their hands the continuity demanded by the nine in the photo or opt for some change, even if it is small and without leaving the nationalist side.
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