At your feet, Madam President of Catalonia Parliament!

Joaquín Luna, 3 February 2022

(EFE)

As a citizen of Catalonia, I could not agree more with President Borràs: this is about democracy, and as it is about democracy, the smartest thing to do is to decree – well, to advise others – to close the Parliament. So…

Is this about democracy and repression, or is it about pissing off ERC and encouraging the masses with a view to future disqualifications?

And so it goes: as this is about democracy, I close – well, I advise to close – the Parliament.

Frankly, you have to be very stubborn to take such a decision – a very serious one – and not stop to think about the ridicule it leaves on Catalonia looking outwards, where the image of a rich and idle territory whose leaders indulge in the eccentricities of spoiled children in the name of concepts that in the rest of the world serve, precisely, to limit abuses of power has already been imposed – and it is not Madrid, but Paris, London or Brussels.

Harmless children, that is, who do nothing but harm themselves while the rest of the world goes about its serious business.

I am in denial of the main argument. Of course, in an election campaign period, public buildings cannot display partisan symbols (please don’t say that the yellow ribbon – here and now – belongs to everyone). And, of course, the first citizen obliged to obey the laws is the legislator, who has the prerogative to change them. Do I have the right to break a law, object to a tax or skip what irritates me? Unless there are first- and second-class citizens, an idea that is flying around in Catalonia, whose leaders defend a democracy without separation of powers, as was already proven in September 2017 in that same Chamber that they are paralysing and degrading today.

And if the electoral rules are not to the liking of the parliamentary majority, it has the possibility of endowing Catalonia with its own electoral law, as all – I repeat, all – other regions have done. If it existed, Catalonia would have its own electoral board. Of course, the Generalitat remains faithful to the general law of the Spanish state dating back to 1985. And so, with 31,000 votes in Girona you get a seat that in Barcelona requires 47,000 votes.

At your feet, Madam President!

https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20220203/8030006/pies-presidenta.html