I remember the days when politicians were able to say and do things that put their popularity at risk. I will say three names that are part of the world of yesteryear: Felipe González, Jordi Pujol and Pasqual Maragall. All three – who have ruled for a number of years – have been able to make some decisions that have been criticized by some of their voters. I’m talking about three leaders who didn’t confuse citizenship with a fan club, although all three aroused enthusiastic support. It’s not nostalgia, it’s a reminder of a lost virtue. Not a day goes by without a politician resigning from a compromise because polls or social media indicate that this step will cause him headaches. In Catalonia, the process has intensified this trend, especially within the pro-independence camp: some have only a compass when it comes to acting and it is – almost always – not to be called “traitors”.
Together for Catalonia, a party that signed a comprehensive agreement to reform the law on language policy, to deal intelligently with the ruling of the TSJC which requires the implementation of 25% of Spanish in all schools, has been definitively detached from this consensus. The pact, signed on March 24 by the ERC, PSC, communes and the Puigdemont formation, had two advantages: it responded with reasoned criteria to judicial intrusion and made visible an indispensable civil unity in a country affair. Former councilor Irene Rigau, who has played a key role in drafting the reform, explained the meaning of the strategy.
When the photo of the agreement was published, the leaders of Junts were corrected from Waterloo and they also received fierce criticism from some entities that present themselves as the only spokespersons for the “educational community”, a concept that some day will have to be debated. Today, when Junts is already a de facto artifact led by Laura Borràs and Jordi Turull, fear and aesthetics have weighed more heavily than responsibility and the word given. It is the fear of being unpopular and being called enemies of the homeland. It is the aesthetics of gestures at the service of bases that are never intended to be contradicted.
It would be good news for the ERC, the PSC and the commons – who have enough votes to do so – to approve the reform as soon as possible.
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