18.04.2020
Pessimism, a strange, flawed, sad air. The Catalan government is writing very gloomy pages these weeks. At all costs the priority is the will to appear, to say that there is a government, that there is autonomy, that there is a country, whose president allows himself the luxury of summoning the foreign media to criticize without any complex or shame the Government of all citizens of Spain, or of the Spanish State – as has been specified over and over again for decades from TV3. Apart from moral consideration, there is the fact that nationalism always forgets that Catalans, like other citizens of other autonomies, have three levels of administration, the central, the autonomous and the local. There are not two governments at odds, because the coalition executive that Pedro Sánchez presides over is also the government of the Catalans. It is voted in a general election so that, in the Parliament, a government of all is chosen. Does it cost so much to admit that?
In a situation like this, an autonomous government can disagree, of course, and look for other alternatives, but it must be done in the appropriate meetings, in the constant contacts that are maintained. If that were the problem, the need to unify criteria, and improve adverse situations, nationalism would not use those channels. Because the objective is different: it is to put out your head, to say that there is a country that tells foreign journalists that if it were independent it would manage everything better.
Betrayal in times of pandemic has the name of Torra. And it is hard to say, because the tradition of Catalan nationalism, despite its adversaries, – which there are by principles and conviction -, has not always acted like this. Not much less. It has collaborated, and is, in fact, a co-star of the modernization of Spain, as the master Cacho Viu reported. That is why for many leaders who come from that constructive tradition, the feeling that prevails in them at the moment is that of other people’s shame, not to mention other adjectives.
The Ministry of Health, led by the Catalan Salvador Illa, coming from this constructive Catalan tradition, has been forced to issue an order to establish a unique reporting model for the autonomous communities for more efficient management of information on affected and died by Covid-19. And it has done so because of the “distortions” of a community, in a clear allusion to Catalonia. At this point, after several weeks, the follow-up of the famous pandemic curve is more complicated, because, without consulting, oblivious to the indications of the WHO, the Catalan autonomic government has decided to count in another way, demanding, in addition, that the central government and the rest of the autonomous regions do the same. Curious alliance that Torra has established with the PP, which day after day, in the mouth of Pablo Casado, calls on the Government to clarify the actual number of deaths by Covid-19.
It is the same that the objectives be different. The fact is that the Government of Torra has decided to corner the Government of Sánchez, with that kind of pincers next to the PP. Why? To exist, because nationalism has begun to internalize two issues: that it is not up to the required management, that it has a very deficient human capital at the head of the Generalitat; and that its independence political project does not hold by any side.
The changes that the experts predict from this pandemic may not reach the dimension they draw, but, in any case, it is evident that the priorities will be other, that one of the requests with the most support will be to collaborate, to unite efforts. Was it now so difficult for the Government of the Generalitat to accompany the Executive of all – with the pertinent criticism in the meetings that it maintains – to project an image of maximum strength to overcome such a serious situation?
In fact, that same Catalan government is nullifying the Generalitat’s greatest strength in all these years: the idea that the best government is closest to the citizen. With advisers such as Buch, Budó, Vergés or Puigneró, or President Torra himself, what is the Generalitat really for?
Attention, everyone, because that will also be debated when all this comes to an end: how is the management, with what public powers, and how many public bodies are needed. Is that really not in the heads of Torra or Buch?
Add comment