Juan-José López Burniol, January 29, 2022
I read in an excellent –and well-worked– article by José Antonio Zarzalejos that the PSOE and Podemos – with the encouragement of the PNV and ERC – want to harmonize the taxes assigned to the autonomies – assets, successions, donations – to give an ax to the tax model of the Community of Madrid. It is a model that Castilla and León and Andalusia could copy, and that the PP could later present as a programmatic offer. And, simultaneously with this news, another arises according to which, after the miracle that was the agreement between unions and employers on the labor reform, it turns out that the Government runs aground in Parliament with its partners: PNV and ERC demand the prevalence of the agreements at regional level over the ones at state level. The Ministry of Labor is looking for a way out and Unai Sordo (CC.OO.) helps by understanding that this change would hardly have an effect on collective bargaining.
Regardless of my opinion on both issues (I am in favor of tax harmonization and lack criteria, due to ignorance, on collective bargaining), if I bring up both news it is because they seem to me to be symptomatic of the most serious problem that Spain, as a nation legally articulated as a State, is facing: that of its cantonalization or, in other words, that of its institutional bankruptcy. Why do I say this? Look at what PNV and ERC demand (by the way, what strange bedfellows!). On the one hand, they want fiscal harmonization, that is, they want more State: that the State of all (yes, of all) impose limits on each of its parts; but, on the other hand, they demand less State, that is to say, that the autonomic agreements (of the Basque Country, of Catalonia…) prevail over the state ones. In one case, they want “more State”, while in the other they want “less State”. Why do they dance yenka-style?
The PNV and ERC pursue the respective interests of the Basque Country and Catalonia, making a clean slate of the general interests of Spain
Theirs is a lawful and respectable position. I respect them. But I wonder what is the reason for the contradiction that it implies, and how does it affect us, the Spaniards who want this piece of land that we call Spain and that goes from the Pyrenees to Punta Europa, there in Tarifa, and from Fisterra to Cap de Creus, to be organized once and for all rationally and freely, in accordance with the principle that the general interest of the whole prevails over the individual interest of its parts. Raising the question in this way, my answer is clear: there is no contradiction in the positions on both issues of the PNV and ERC. They are consistent, because the PNV and ERC exclusively pursue the respective interests of the Basque Country and Catalonia, making a clean slate of the general interests of Spain, understanding that they make no difference to them. They are nationalists, which is quite a different thing from being patriots.
Day by day an institutional erosion is growing that is already beginning to undermine the structure of the State
Nothing to object. They are within their rights. The same right that those of us who want to share, freely and democratically, a common project based on a sense of belonging to Spain, without which solidarity is illusory. And, from this perspective, I dare to make two affirmations: 1) The “peninsular diaspora” (Ortega) begins to catch on: it is perceived, buried, in the center-periphery dialectic, in Teruel Exists, Soria Already… and in Madrid exists; yes, also in Madrid exists. 2) A part of the Socialist Party has a desire, not out of conviction but out of tactics, to make common cause with nationalists of all stripes and gradations (it is the syndrome of the San Sebastián pact), with the result, for the party, which is to see in its history. A drift to the exclusive service of their partisan interests and the personal interests of their leaders. A drift that finds its best pretext in the stubborn, rude and foolish opposition of the Popular Party, whose horizon also ends in the conquest of power.
In short, nobody will do anything waiting for others to do it. And so an institutional erosion grows day by day, which is already beginning to undermine the structure of the State for the benefit of those who want to destroy it. That is why we can say to those who could avoid it through a minimum agreement: forgive them, Lord, because they do not know what they are doing.
https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20220129/8019325/cantonizacion-espana.html
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