I can not anymore. These three words synthesized Elsa Artadi’s farewell to politics, on Friday March 6, just three months after being proclaimed the Junts candidate for the Barcelona municipal elections of 2023. Through tears, Artadi announced that she was leaving all her positions and responsibilities, after eleven years of “maximum dedication” to the pro-independence policy, a period in which she became a close collaborator of Puigdemont and jumped from high position to high position, as if she were the ideal profile for each and every one of them (or as if the bench was unpopulated).
Artadi’s “I can’t take it anymore” seems to be a typical case of burn out, or burned syndrome, which affects people willing to give themselves without limits to their work… until the body and mind say enough is enough, and a disabling condition of chronic stress, exhaustion and feelings of helplessness and failure. In 2019, the WHO defined burnout as a disease, and if that was indeed what happened to Artadi, there would be nothing more than to recommend rest, wish him a healthier work environment and hope for his speedy recovery.
With his “I can’t take it anymore”, Artadi alluded to a situation of extreme personal fatigue, telling us what, that is, the effect of his illness. But he didn’t tell us why, the cause of his illness. He therefore left the inquisitive minds, the curious, with a question in mind: can’t do more than what? There are several hypotheses here. The most immediate would be that “I can’t take it anymore” to work at a strenuous pace. But there are others. For example, “I can no longer” work in a party that has believed it possible to remotely direct Catalan politics from Waterloo, and aspires to lead the entire independence movement from alternative platforms to the Generalitat, despite being integrated into its Government, where it is already boring his insomniac quarrel with the partner ERC. Or, also: “I can no longer” work in a party where those who have been top leaders are abandoning their positions. Or, also: “I can’t take it anymore” to work for a party in which the candidates for command fight non-stop and give the sensation of being in a pot of crickets with infinite division potential.
Those are interpretations within the reach of any militant or supporter of Junts. But if those disaffected to the cause speak out, the versions could go further. For example, “I can’t take it anymore”, ten years after the Onze de Setembre 2012 demonstration, after witnessing the errors, first, and the shipwreck, later, of the Procés, of maintaining the fiction of independence, day in and day out. also, despite knowing that the project is not feasible in the short or medium term. And, of course, “I can no longer” see how the Government continues to prioritize a desire on the part of the general interest.
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