Last Monday, August 2, Vice President Puigneró gallantly and delighted with himself announced an agreement to expand El Prat Airport, negotiated by surprise with the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez. It is worth remembering the Vice President's press conference, who, sporting a face as happy as parents embracing their newborn for the first time, trumpeted the characteristics of the new airport as an intercontinental hub, capable of connecting El Prat's runways with the high-speed train and the airports of Reus and Girona; the news was so cool that, had it lasted a few more minutes, Puigneró would have interconnected the airport with the Taj Mahal. But the reality was quite different: Puigneró had secretly organized the meeting with the minister simply to score a personal point on the day a dialogue table was held where, as always, the Government had only given us promises.
In fact, at that meeting, our learned vice president only presented the plan to the minister, who, despite being a former mayor of Gavà and perfectly knowing the situation, beyond committing to specific funding and a timeline (any work of this magnitude, as even a madman understands, needs a multi-year infrastructure plan simply to be approved), merely said that the idea seemed like a joke. Apart from knowing Puigneró's intentions, the very Catalan minister knows what the tribe is like and intuited that the Generalitat itself, with the invaluable help of Ada Colau and the ecological sect, would end up aborting the expansion of the third runway since in Catalonia any idea, however basic, always ends up having a platform against it or a mayor who prefers to save a few ducks rather than connect us with the civilized world.
Last Wednesday, the minister declared the pact broken (a non-existent agreement because, I insist, it did not have a concrete work plan), and the Govern began to exercise in the national sport of whining, censoring perfidious Spain as responsible for leaving the Catalans without planes. In short, the entire Airport soap opera has only been one more example of the procesista politics of the last two decades; big announcements, thunderous promises, roadmaps and beautiful power points... and in the end, nothing at all. Not because it is predictable, this habit of fake politics to which our leaders have accustomed us must be denounced, and even more so at a time when lies have a rather scarce and short lifespan. All of this would be laughable, if issues such as the expansion of El Prat did not have a real impact on the country's economic life.
Not because it is predictable, this habit of fake politics to which our leaders have accustomed us must be denounced, and even more so at a time when lies have a rather scarce and short lifespanFaced with this umpteenth mockery, the citizen disillusioned with life (whether independentista like myself, dependentista, or interdependentista) is left with only the option of cyanide or exercising a sense of humor. I, listening to my illustrious psychiatrist, always opt for the second option, and I must admit that this fiction of the Josep Tarradellas airport hub has lasted forty-one days, which is quite a milestone if we consider that the biggest fiction we have lived in recent years, the declaration of the Catalan Republic on 10-10-2017, lasted only eight seconds.It must be said that, slowly, we are improving: we have gone from republics that barely emit their first cry and an incipient poop to lasting more than a month, and I would say that, if we apply ourselves, the next star proposal for funding or status could even last a record three months.
If we funded the lives of the ruling class to tell us stories, this habit of inventing airport projects or non-existent republics could even be material for a literary contest. But if we look at the fine print of the electoral programs of republicans and convergents, in theory future times should focus on good public management, pragmatism, sanity, and all the usual nonsense you already know. The reality is different, and we certify again that when a political class gets used to lies and a lack of ambition, first you start inventing republics, then airports interconnected with Saturn, and soon tricks on La Rambla in Barcelona to trick tourists who land at an airport that has become very small but, of course, has a very cute garden.
What a desire to celebrate the Diada, right?