Pere Aragonès pulled a surprise rabbit out of the hat yesterday in his speech at the Cercle d'Economia, which was a jug of cold water for an audience made up mostly of businessmen and executives. The president of the Generalitat largely questioned the explicit economic ideas of the Cercle. And also those implicit in the field of politics.
The president of the forum, Jaume Guardiola, gave a concise introductory summary of his vision of the state of the Catalan economy: critical, without catastrophizing; emphasizing the problems of some basic services, such as primary care; highlighting the low growth in productivity and, by way of conclusion, calling on the Government to focus on management and reforms. Tactfully, he avoided discussing taxes.
And when responding, the president took out the rabbit, dialectical, because he was not wearing a top hat. He advanced that in the general elections, which Pedro Sánchez has called for July 23, the result will almost certainly be that of a PP government in coalition with the extreme right.
A government that would have an economic model opposed to the one that in theory now governs Catalonia. Specifically, he advanced, the proposal for the alliance of PP and Vox would be the return to the world of the old financial bubble that, as he explained to an audience, already well into middle age, has ruined the lives of the younger generations, such as the of which he himself claimed to be a part.
For this reason, according to Aragonès, now it will be time to prepare for the clash with this new reality and he summarized his analysis with a political proposal, a democratic front. An authentic turn, from the relief and the surprise of Pujolist nationalism in its different mutations, to the pact between the two poles of the pro-independence sensibility.
Well looked at, Aragonès was explaining his balance, and it is assumed that that of the ERC president, Oriol Junqueras, of the elections last Sunday and based on them, how he will face the new campaign.
After listening to the president's words, the conclusion is that the bad result of 28-M is going to translate into a withdrawal from the sovereignist axis and a greater distance towards the policies of commitment to the State. To a large extent, because if Aragonès's fears about the result of July 23 are confirmed, such a thing will have no room for development.
And that vision contrasted with the heat that the members of the Cercle have been enjoying these two days of meeting, celebrating the victory of Xavier Trias in Barcelona. The politician best positioned to be the next mayor of the capital of Catalonia went to Barceloneta yesterday, where the meeting of the economic forum is being held, and was received in the smell of crowds, with messages of encouragement for him to assert his eleven councilors for become mayor and radically change municipal politics. He had to cross a long human corridor before taking a seat in the room.
And fueling the idea that after the results of Barcelona, a sector of Junts has opened a way to rebuild the center right yearned for by the Catalan bourgeoisie for a decade.
