Jaume Reixach 22/3/2021
Independentists, Buddhists and artists
Five out of seven. This is the correlation of pro-independence representatives (two from ERC, two from JxCat and one from the CUP) and non-pro-independence representatives (two from PSC) that are on the Board of Parliament of the XIII Legislature. A proportion that does not represent, at all, the electoral map of Catalonia, where the pro-independence and non-pro-independence forces are practically equal.
Historically, Catalan nationalism has made the offense of the victim its reason for existing. Since the ‘Memorial de Greuges’ in 1885, more than 135 years have passed. Throughout this very long period of time, the discourse of political Catalanism, depending on each era, has varied in letter, but the music, with its well-known and dramatic crescendo, is always the same: “Madrid does not understand us, Madrid does not love us, Madrid is angry with us, Madrid steals us, Madrid wants to make us disappear”.
This attitude of complaining and always blaming others usually hides one’s own inability and impotence to take the upper hand and take responsibility for our actions and our destiny. The independence movement still has to do a deep introspection to recognize the very serious strategic mistakes that it has committed and that have led it to be considered, to its shame, the “black sheep” of the European Union, along with the populist, eurosceptic and xenophobic parties .
From Pau Casals to Carles Puigdemont there is an abysmal distance. The two internationalized the “Catalan case”. But, while the first aroused admiration and respect in the great world temples of democracy, such as the White House or the United Nations, the second is ignored and rejected by the vast majority of his colleagues in the European Parliament, among other things for his frivolity, his relations with the Kremlin.
And it is that when, beyond victimhood, Catalanism / nationalism / independence has come to govern and demonstrate, with deeds and not words, how it directs and how it manages, then the masks jump and our soul falls to our feet: corruption, cronyism, misappropriation of public resources, media manipulation, kidnapping of informative and democratic pluralism, marginalization of the Castilian-speaking population …
Its political project, its “imagined country”, is not funny at all. It has a totalitarian and standardizing essence that scares and that as a non-nationalist Catalan I have to reject and denounce. We saw it with the aberrant disconnection laws of September 6 and 7, 2017. And we have again evidence of this with the imposition, absolutely biased, of the Parliament’s Board and, as a conclusion, with the election of a president, Laura Borràs, investigated for corruption.
I have nothing against the independentists – nor against Buddhists or artists – but I do have anything against the way they want to implement and impose their ideology. They do not understand, or do not want to understand, that in Catalonia there are millions of people who, for many reasons, do not find the secession from Spain interesting or pragmatic.
Instead of accepting it and channeling their energy to try to improve coexistence among all, working to make a Catalan society more supportive and more balanced, they continue to build walls. And since they cannot build the “great wall” of the Ebro, they dedicate themselves to building, inside doors, smaller walls, but still more damaging, that divide families, towns, neighborhoods and cities.
This Cain-like way of understanding life and politics is unacceptable in 21st century Europe. Passing the roller, as they have done with the composition of the Board of Parliament, or applying the funnel law, as denoted by the appointment of Laura Borràs, further discredits the independence movement.
They are obsessed with attracting attention because “the world is looking at us”. But what the world sees is that in Catalonia, and in the name of independence, they kidnap Parliament and democracy.
The poisoned and bloody conflict in Ulster, where the walls – these, really – divided towns, neighborhoods and cities, was resolved with the formation of a mixed government made up of representatives of Catholics and Protestants. In Catalonia, to overcome the deep wounds caused by the procés, we also need a mixed government of independentists and non-independentists. The PNV and PSE-PSOE have done it in the Basque Country and they are doing very well.
But it seems obvious that this is not the strategy Oriol Junqueras has in mind. He is from Jordi Pujol’s school: he wants to socialize his suffering, for which he and only he is responsible. Nobody forced Jordi Pujol to be corrupt and to protect corruption…
Oriol Junqueras, who comes from Sant Vicenç dels Horts and has been its mayor, knows the “real Catalonia” perfectly. Why does he have this lack of respect and consideration towards his non-independence fellow citizens, whom he says he loves so much and that they are the majority in his town? Will he be able to look them in the eye, knowing all the evil that he inflicts on them with the formation of a government of the independentist one-color Generalitat?
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