Mireia Esteve
Joan Coscubiela: “The Catalan far right is within Junts and other parties” FERRAN FORNÉ BARCELONA
The CCOO trade unionist and former member of parliament for Catalonia, Joan Coscubiela (Barcelona, 1954), has just published ‘The Pandemic of Capitalism’ (Peninsula), in which he analyzes how the health crisis has exposed the shortcomings of the capitalist model.
You point out that nation states are no longer the tool to solve the problems of citizenship. Why?
– The nation-state has begun a process of transformation and we must be able to build spaces of governance that respond to interdependence, that are situated with a certain commitment to work together.
You prescribe federal culture. How is it implanted?
– Spain is a very politically decentralized country, but it does not have federal structures because it does not have cooperation structures. This would be one of the reforms of the Constitution, but unfortunately there is no idea of a global reform.
You highlight the Spanish government’s management of the crisis, but benefits such as ERTOs and the minimum living income have not worked 100%.
– The ERTOs have worked frankly well, they have saved a lot of jobs. With minimal income, exaggerated expectations have been generated. We need to take urgent action and at the same time implement structural reforms that will last forever, such as the minimum income.
Are the differences between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos in government salvageable?
– This is a turbulent government. The issue of rents, for example, is very complicated. There are different opinions between parties and within parties. Some of the conflicts are legitimate and others could be saved.
Do you share Pablo Iglesias’ words about democracy?
– The debate must be rigorous. Does Spanish democracy have shortcomings? Well, as much as all of them. Linking it to the so-called exile condition of Puigdemont? I don’t think so; there are other elements of imperfection. In terms of equality, Spain is one of the most advanced countries in our environment. Our main deficit is economic and social democracy.
What about Puigdemont’s comparison with Republican exiles?
– Absolutely against, I do not share it.
You say the 2020 budget should be taken “with tweezers”. Shouldn’t the Comuns have approved them?
– The argument given to negotiate them, which was to approve budgets and call elections, was not fulfilled. And I stay here.
Should they renegotiate them?
– Whatever the government that comes out, it has the responsibility to attend to the transversal mandate of the citizens and try to build bridges. It belongs to the government and the opposition.
You compare independence with the far right. Is it comparable?
– As independence is in a dead end, increasingly supremacist, xenophobic attitudes are emerging. It has been seen with some components of JuntsxCat. The difference is that the Catalan extreme right is within JuntsxCat and other parties and the Spanish extreme right wing came out of the womb of the PP. Do not rule out that if the thing ends with more frustration it can happen to us in Catalonia as well. The National Front of Catalonia has already come out. Rather than making comparisons, I call for not underestimating this risk.
You defend the freedom of prisoners as an “essential and necessary” condition, but not enough to resolve the conflict. What’s missing?
– Relax the situation, find micro solutions where before we found systemic solutions. We need to rediscover ourselves in a common goal that makes us feel complicit, communal.
Have you seen the prisoners recently?
– The last person I saw was Dolors Bassa taking advantage of one of the third grade permits.
Are you in favor of eliminating the crime of sedition?
– The pardon would give an immediate solution of freedom and would give us more time to think about the reform of the Penal Code. It would be best to change even the name, but that doesn’t mean there are possible behaviors that go unpunished.
Do you see a tripartite feasible?
– I want it. And it may not arrive in the first half of the match, but there is a need to work to make it into the second half.
Did it bother you that your September 7 speech was applauded by the unionist side?
– I am as proud of that intervention as the protagonists of that moment are ashamed.
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