The history of Spain shows that everything experienced in Catalonia as a tragedy is usually later reconverted by Madrid into a farce with airs of a sainete. The period of tension and apparent radicalism that kilometer zero has experienced before next Tuesday's elections turns out to be nothing more than a crude, concentrated copy of the failed procés towards independence prior to October 2017, without, obviously, the capital's newspapers having vomited so much pornography about how political tension is about to break up families who no longer dare to share a table at Christmas, equating the corners of Malasaña to Kabul or arguing that, if so much bad blood converges per square meter, Madrileños will end up forgetting their afternoon cañita to go out into the street to hand out slaps. It's curious: the far-right had been attacking separatism for several years, but neither Pablo Iglesias dedicated himself to crying or abandoning debates where VOX did not condemn the burning of effigies with President Puigdemont's face, nor did Pedro Sánchez feel such a strong urge to personally lead a crusade against intolerance disguised as Mandela.
In fact, for the Madrid left to champion the cause against alleged fascism is one of the most notoriously cynical phenomena in Spanish politics of recent decades. One does not need an elephant's memory to recall that it was Pedro Sánchez who, in the general elections of April 23 and November 10, 2019, did everything possible for VOX to participate in the debates on Televisión Española, in the first case when the far-right only had a relevant presence in the Parliament of Andalusia (the Electoral Board did not allow it, but the PSOE leader managed, through a scarcely democratic formula, for Atresmedia to agree to a debate format that Sánchez only pursued with the aim of wearing down the PP, displaying unprecedented irresponsibility condemned by most of his colleagues in the rest of Europe). But we don't have to go that far; days ago Sánchez warned in an electoral rally of the danger "of getting used to the far-right as something normal," but, when VOX saved the PSOE's European funds decree three months ago with its abstention, it was Sánchez himself who told Abascal: "in some moments of brilliance, you show more responsibility for the country and more sense of state than the leader of the opposition."
When the PSOE needed VOX, neither Abascal nor his henchmen were the malevolent enemies of democracy from whom Supersánchez now wants to save us: in fact, here in Catalunya we already remember how a certain Salvador Efecto Illa seemed to have no problem including VOX in the Parliament's board. The one who has embedded the far-right, in short, has been one of the most irresponsible politicians in Europe and his court of mourners.
The one who has embedded the far-right, in short, has been one of the most irresponsible politicians in Europe and his court of mournersBut all this, however important it may be, is only one of the many results that the processingfrom Madrid, a creation of watertight political blocs that Isabel Díaz Ayuso has managed to shrewdly convert into an electoral plebiscite. As little as one pays attention,Madrid politics has become a cheap copy of Pujolism in its pretension to paint the capital of Spain as a unique place where individual and business freedom are sacrosanct(however much this freedom is based on getting a good buzz by skipping the curfew in pandemic times) and also a carbon copy of Masism with its plebiscitary slogans like "communism or freedom". As I said at the beginning,Madrid always regurgitates Catalan political debates with a charming grace to denigrate them.
Although it may seem laughable, the PP machine and the propaganda factory of Aznar supporter Miguel Ángel Rodríguez have copy-pasted in detail the dynamic of the procés by making Madrilenians proud with a libertarian zeal that may seem laughable to us, but which has a good chance of approaching an absolute majority. In the same way that the sovereignist leaders trafficked with the illusions of the people before 1-O, reluctantly plotting a referendum that they never wanted to apply with all its consequences, Ayuso has spearheaded a process of liberalismo cañí that aims to paint the Spanish capital as one of the few places where democracy truly works. It is not strange that, in a recent interview in La Vanguardia, the acting president declared that "people come to Madrid to be free, also from Catalonia." As cynical and hilarious as it may seem, Ayuso yearns for an indepe republic of Madrid and her campaign is a calculated exercise in inflating the ego of her voters with a replica of what Pujol called "differential fact." It matters little that this liberalism is false and sponsored by the IBEX and the BOE; what counts is to add votes.
The Madrid is different operation has not only colored the right of the capital. The sad, poor, and unfortunate Ángel Gabilondo has counteracted Ayuso's Pujolist regionalism by tirelessly repeating, like the old PSC opponents of Pujol, that Madrid must be a welcoming land and that all this talk of identitarian discourse is outdated (in reality, my philosopher colleague has been reading too many tabloids and parliamentary reports for too long to concern himself with how the world really is). But the independent republic effect has also infected Iglesias; emulating Carles Puigdemont, the leader of Podemos left the Government of Spain to return to his homeland (which is, in fact, the space where Podemos originated during 15-M) with a barely disguised corny rhetoric of a prodigal son. Everyone was surprised when a vice president of Spain resigned from a very high position to end up as a mere regional deputy, but the move has a very simple logic. Trapped by Ayuso and her strength, Iglesias has ended up preferring to be a political dwarf in the future republic of Madrid than a mere government official, a pulpit for which, let's remember, the guy caused nothing less than a repeat election.
Ayuso longs for an indepe republic of Madrid and her campaign is a calculated exercise in inflating the ego of her voters with a replica of what Pujol called "differential fact"I'm sure the readers of my belovedPostthey will be tempted to think that a politician with so few lights as Díaz Ayuso, about whom tons of jokes have been made (most of them, of course, totally deserved and even provoked by herspeechwriters) cannot embody a political movement like the one I describe. To abandon this prejudiceone only has to look at history to see how great tectonic plates and political earthquakes have often been protagonized by men and women for whom not even God would have given half a hard coin. Spain is a perfect example, with the whippersnapper Adolfo Suárez and thecampechanoJuan Carlos I leading a political transition that traditional historiographical mysticism has turned into a model but that still holds many shadows. One does not have to be Churchill's twin, in short, to approach the tsunami wagon and take advantage of them for one's own benefit: Artur Mas, Puigdemont and Junqueras tried it with independentism until the force of 1-O overflowed their desire to pact with Spain, a tactic that not only proved mistaken but, as is evident, clearly counterproductive.
Díaz Ayuso has invented the longing for an independent republic of Madrid to save what remains of the capital's turbo-economy, win the favor of its elites, and make her voters believe that something as serious as freedom consists of downing a beer whenever you please. This minimalist nationalism may seem laughable, I insist, but it is not at all difficult to see how most Catalan politicians (and journalists!) have been seized by a sudden attack of envy and do nothing but pay close attention to the elections in the capital of the kingdom as if the final judgment were to be decided next Tuesday.
What none of them, neither the Catalan procesistas nor the Madrileños, have anticipated is that the bankruptcy of the Spanish state, which will increase when the pandemic ends, is not a momentary fact and that in Catalonia there are still many citizens, like the author of this beloved Punyalada of yours, for whom 1-O is not just a nostalgic date to comment on with colleagues in tears nor another example of the symbolic politics that the shameless people who lead us like so much. Let us, then, let Madrid and the gatherings of our tribe entertain themselves with Ayuso's elections, while we will take advantage of the farce to forge the future of the country.
The party, my friends, is not over.