From Barcelona
Last Wednesday, four days before the celebration of the Diada, the national holiday of Catalonia, the Government of Spain announced that it was paralyzing a multimillion-dollar investment to expand the El Prat international airport, in Barcelona, the second most important air station in the country after Madrid-Barajas. From one day to the next, a work that was going to involve a disbursement of the public coffers of 1,700 million euros, at a time when the economic recovery in the face of the crisis caused by the pandemic requires strong public participation, remained in at least air.
Criterion Differences
What had happened? A part of the Generalitat (Catalan government), in which they coexist as a bad avenue couple Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (pro-independence left) and Junts X Cat (conservatives, also pro-independence) had brought to light their differences of opinion about the work, which was going to affect land that conservationists consider to be of great ecological value. After calling a demonstration against the expansion, some members of Esquerra announced that they would attend, to which the Government of Pedro Sánchez considered a change of criteria on the part of the Generalitat in relation to the project. He consequently announced that investment was paralyzed for at least five years. Significantly, from Catalonia there were no reproaches against Pedro Sánchez, but internal darts between the two wings of secessionism.
The rain of millions in investments in Catalonia was part of Pedro Sánchez’s strategy to appease the independence movement that began with the pardon that allowed the new leaders who had been convicted of holding the illegal referendum in 2017 to get out of jail. More than the appeasement policy of the socialist president, the independence movement seems to have lost strength due to its own internal division. The Barcelona City Guard had about 108,000 participants, far from the 600,000 two years ago, before the pandemic.
Unilateral way
Broadly speaking, what divides waters is a word that the leaders of Esquerra do not want to hear again and the most radical sectors are reluctant to banish from their vocabulary: unilateralism. Yesterday’s demonstration was called by organizations that defend the unilateral path, that is, a strategy towards independence that obviates any possible negotiation with the State. The President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés (Esquerra), despite being the main defender of the dialogue route, attended the march, to which he tried to give it its own meaning. He said that the mobilization day will allow him to go to the negotiating table with the endorsement of that popular support.
The leaders of JXCat, reluctant to negotiate, do not refuse the president to attend a meeting with Sánchez, but warn that it will only serve to highlight the State’s lack of willingness for dialogue. Although these two parties are the ones that channel the votes, the independence movement is not limited to these two currents. On the contrary, it agglutinates in an amalgam of cultural, social and political organizations that in recent months have shown a clear lack of leadership.
Between cheers and boos
This division was evident in yesterday’s demonstration. The conveners, civil society organizations, they took care to prevent politicians from occupying the head, so the members of the government had to spread out along the columns. Aragonese, the main exponent of the dialogue, was received with mixed opinions, between boos and cheers according to the groups he crossed paths with.
The demonstration ended with riots and two detainees when rival groups faced blows.
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