Opinion 05/20/2020 15:45
Vice President Aragonès, with President Torra
Journalist by vocation and, therefore, founder and editor of EL TRIANGLE since 1990. Militant of the cause for a better world
With more than 260,000 people infected and almost 12,000 dead, Covid-19 has hit Catalonia dramatically, with a virulence which has been seen in few places on the planet. The economic effects of the pandemic are also appalling. The strike had risen, at the end of April, to 467,810 people and almost 100,000 companies have filed ERTEs, which affect more than 715,000 workers.
The health and social situation is of an extreme emergency. The queues to get free food are the expression of the misery that is undermining society. The “new normal” announced to us will inevitably be accompanied by the closure of many businesses and the deepening of the labor crisis.
The peak of the pandemic has coincided with the 40th anniversary of the restitution of the Parliament of Catalonia, our highest institution of self-government. The tragic circumstances that we have to live through have tarnished the institutional commemoration of this event. For those of us born and raised under the boot of Francoism, the return of President Josep Tarradellas, the approval of the Statute of Autonomy and the reestablishment of the Parliament of the Ciutadella Park are unforgettable milestones.
The
contrast between those days of the spring of 1980, brimming with optimism and
collective hope, and these days of the spring of 2020, marked by sadness and
the vertigo of uncertainty, produces chills. The feeling of hecatomb is, in our
case, increased by the absence of a political leadership and a solid referent,
capable of responding to the anguishes and desires of the Catalans.
I do not want to overdo things against President
Quim Torra. He is as he is and you cannot ask for more. He acceded to the
position by accident, as vicar president in the absence of Carles Puigdemont.
To highlight the provisional nature of his duties, he has even left the
presidential office of the Palau de la Generalitat empty. He presumes that he
is not a “professional” politician and I assure you that he
demonstrates a profound ignorance of the operation of the administration and of
the mazes of public management, which also do not interest him at all.
Quim Torra transmits stress, insecurity and
precariousness. He knows that his continuity depends on the decision of the
Supreme Court on his ridiculous act of disobedience with the banner on the
balcony of the Palau in Plaza de San Jaime. Due to his dignity and that of the
institution he represents, he cannot link the country’s political, economic and
social agenda to the judicial outcome of this minor and anecdotal episode. It
is to despise the Generalitat and Catalonia, in moments of great drama and
collective pain.
He admires men of action
(Pau Claris, Rafael de Casanova, Francesc Macià, the Badia brothers …), but
Quim Torra is not a man of action nor does he have command manners. I do not
doubt that the delicate family situation that he has, attacked by health
problems, greatly conditions his way of acting. I understand him.
Unlike other historical independence referents,
the current President of the Generalitat will never risk his life or heritage
for patriotic ideals. To understand us: President Lluís Companys had the family
problem of his son Lluïset, but he proclaimed the Catalan State, became deeply
involved in the Civil War and ended up shot in the Montjuic castle.
I do not doubt that Quim Torra is, in his own way,
a great patriot and I respect his passionate and platonic love for “his”
Catalonia “Noucentista”. But I have to say that, unfortunately, he is not the
man Catalonia needs at these critical moments in our history. He has no energy,
he has no empathy, he has no ability to summon – beyond the circle of uncritical
convinced around him – he has no creative or innovative genius, he has no
charisma, he has no credibility.
Its public figure has been fading and fading as
the Covid-19 pandemic has progressed and destroyed Catalonia. Today, Quim Torra
is a tired man, overwhelmed and stunned.
His name will be associated, forever and ever, with the
health, humanitarian and economic debacle that Catalonia suffered in the 20th
year of the 21st century. And history will say that the Government of the
Generalitat, under its presidency, acted in a very poor and insufficient way.
The high mortality recorded in the nursing homes for the elderly, which are the
exclusive competence of the Catalan Government, will haunt him for all that
remains of his life and beyond.
That is why, as I know that he is a good person
and that he has his feelings on the surface, I ask him to keep the word given
and call elections, now that the budgets – even if they are a dead letter –
have already been approved by Parliament. Quim Torra cannot deny the evidence:
the JxCat and ERC coalition government that he chairs is broken and fully
amortized.
Also the political space that he represents, which
is a coalition of the PDECat, CDC and Carles Puigdemont independent claque, is
running out. After the Supreme Court ruling on the Palau case, the PDECat –
CDC’s continuing organization – is dead and buried. This has been seen by Marta
Pascal, who, quite rightly, has broken the card and created the new Catalan
Nationalist Party (PNC), which will collect the remains of the convergent
shipwreck.
The legislature that began
with the 21-D elections of 2017 is shattered and finished. It can explode at
any time: by the Supreme Court ruling, by the ERC decision to withdraw from the
Government or by an internal split of JxCat that joins the PNC project. Quim
Torra is fully aware of these enormous weaknesses and the most honorable thing
is that he himself now assumes the inevitable decision that, sooner or later,
he has to adopt: the calling of elections to the Catalan Parliament.
Due to his independent pro-independence career,
Quim Torra cannot smear his biography. The Government of the Generalitat, which
he presides, cannot be left to rot, waiting for the MEP Carles Puigdemont to
reorganize, from Waterloo, the puzzle of diverse interests of JxCat (which is a
registered trademark of CDC), PDECat, Crida and the Consell per la República.
This gibberish has no solution in sight. Among
other things, because directing a Catalan party from Belgium is an impossible
task, no matter how much there are Skype, Zoom or Team. Keeping the Government
of the Generalitat in a situation of extreme precariousness because it is
necessary to buy time for Carles Puigdemont to rebuild the broken vase of the
old Convergence is reckless and irresponsible.
President Quim Torra refuses to call early
elections with the excuse that the health, economic and social crisis caused in
Catalonia by the coronavirus is too serious to do. On the contrary: precisely
because the effects of the pandemic have been and are catastrophic and the
reconstruction of the country must be carried out urgently, which is why
elections must be made now and that the Government of the Generalitat has, as
soon as possible better, a new team, prepared and intelligent, with drive,
enthusiasm and the ability to mobilize and organize all the positive energies –
which are many – that exist in Catalonia.
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