This Friday, once again, irresponsibility reached unfortunate heights in Catalan politics with the decision of Junts per Catalunya to leave the Government presided over by Pere Aragonès. Neither the reasons put forward by the supporters of the rupture nor the hackneyed recourse to the decision of the militancy justify a decision of this magnitude at a time as difficult as the current one. The departure of Junts from the Government, decided by some 3,000 militants, leads Catalonia to instability in full negotiation of the budgets of the Generalitat and with an economic crisis of uncertain dimensions on the horizon. The victory of the ‘no’ in this referendum has been the result of a deliberate strategy adopted by the supporters of the rupture, rooted in the defense of the so-called ‘October 1 mandate’, an imperative without any legitimacy and that does not correspond to the plurality of Catalan society expressed in the Parliament. The process that has culminated in the ‘no’ vote began with the announcement of a possible motion of censure against a Government in which Junts had half of the ‘consellers’, it was developed conditioned by the calculated ambiguity of the former president Carles Puigdemont and the general secretary Jordi Turull and continued with the decision of the party president, Laura Borras, of campaigning openly against continuity in the Executive, contravening the internal rules of the party. A move that only responds to partisan interests and without any consideration for the common interest of the country.
The institutional attitude adopted by the Aragonese president in his brief appearance, after knowing Junts’ decision, he should allow recompose as soon as possible an Executive capable of approving budgets and dealing with the consequences of inflation, everything indicates that it has expanded with independents. It is one of the formulas that he has at his disposal, but the break with Junts poses challenges that go beyond people and positions. The new Government will have to seek support from socialists and ‘comuns’. Catalonia is therefore headed for a new political cycle that must address the challenges facing Catalan society with greater realism, dialogue and transversality. It will not be enough to exchange favors between the governability in Madrid and in Barcelona without modifying the political agenda in Catalonia.
The future of together is the other immediate question. In the formation, two souls coexist more united by a feeling born of the ‘procés’ than by a government program. Those who conceived it as the embryo of a new center-right formation with an ideal independence movement not incompatible with a government vocation have emerged defeated from this stake. Among them are Turull himself, the now stupefied Xavier Trias and most of the public positions coming from the old CDC. On the other, those, led by Puigdemont and Borràs, see Junts as a movement fueled by the drive for independence that is still alive in sectors of Catalan society, which can only lead to a process of radicalization and shrinking. From them you can only expect a very strong opposition to the Government that they already describe as illegitimate.
Combining these two souls will now be even more difficult. It will not be easy for those defeated today to consummate the deep reflection necessary to build an option with a vocation for government. Perhaps they can find complicity with those who previously were expelled from that central space that today has no representation. In no case can they be found in the Puigdemont-Borràs tandem that has split the organization in half.