Junts' landing in Provergence is being slow; too much for a bourgeoisie that longs to have political representatives it trusts. The absence of Natalia Mas at the meeting on regional finances has not gone down well either.
In the business world in Catalonia, adaptation to new political times is advancing rapidly. Businessmen and their organizations feel the state of the power relations between the different political formations and act accordingly, with that pragmatism, both ours and reviled, that has characterized them for centuries. After a long time of political ostracism, during the long decade of the process, activity in the corridors of economic power is now picking up again.
The interlocution of the money society with the two forces that seem emerging in the immediate future, the PSC of Salvador Illa, privileged contact with the political power in the capital and the Junts of Carles Puigdemont, which deepens its journey towards being the alternative policy desired by the bourgeoisie, at the moment more due to its interest in having a similar force than because of the firmness of the former's step. It is the bumpy road from post-convergence to provergence.
The socialist, if only because it is closer at hand than the pro-independence exile, has become a must for any bearer of a new proposal. Or for those who want to know what things will be like in Catalonia in the near future, according to the forecasts that emerge from the regional surveys that are being conducted and that predict a broad victory for the PSC. His speech sounds like heavenly music to them: political and social stability; pacification of Catalonia and complicity in a good part of the economic program, with the exception, no less, of the fiscal measures.
Junts, more slowly, is gaining positions, although its political landing, in the opinion of the nobles of the economy, is being slow. Good proof of this, this week during the first debate in Congress of the amnesty law. The intervention of Míriam Nogueras, the independence spokesperson, putting the focus, with names and surnames, on judges and media groups, has raised the political temperature. It is evident that they hope to obtain high returns from the lawfare complaints already known, or those that may come. A high-risk bet, if there is no progress, in the face of the palpable reality that the fire of the reaction of the judiciary against the amnesty and any threat of recognition of responsibility for the dark pages of the State's reaction against the processes.
In Barcelona's long Diagonal they have taken Nogueras's phrases with anger, especially because they fear that their own campaign of conciliatory proselytism among colleagues from the rest of Spain and official and State establishments could end up being considered an exercise in political innocence.
Although Puigdemont's party has already shown some first signs of harmony with economic forces - a recent proof through a bill to improve the tax regime for foundations and patronage, a traditional aspiration of bourgeois salons and which appears in In the decalogue of proposals that the Catalan employers' association Foment sent to Junts - and the PNV - just a month ago, economic issues have not emerged as a priority so far. Puigdemont believes that he must underpin the political agreements, the so-called national agenda, before entering into economic negotiations.
And with ERC, the party of Oriol Junqueras and President Pere Aragonès, things are still not moving forward. The already tiresome file of the expansion of the Barcelona airport, which the Republicans have not fully seen, as Territori showed by stating that El Prat concentrates too much airport activity and betting on the reinforcement of those in Reus and Girona. The same, in the opinion of businessmen, with the investment plans to face the long drought. Despite this, contacts continue; Not in vain, the Republicans continue to attract business interest given their status as head of the Generalitat.
But Nogueras's intervention has not been the only setback this week for the Catalan notables. The other has been the Government's decision that the Minister of Economy, Natalia Mas, did not attend the meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council on Monday, arguing that the Generalitat already has a "bilateral" negotiation open with the Government to agree on a “unique” financing model for Catalonia. Statements that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, quickly responded to the pressure from the popular councilors: “There is no bilateral negotiation with Catalonia.”
It is possible that Mas extrapolates the ERC negotiations with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, from which arose the reduction of 20% of the Generalitat's debt with the state FLA and the partial transfer of Rodalies, to conclude that It is something “bilateral”. But it would be more accurate to classify it as multilateral, since the first agreement on Catalonia, at least until now, is premised on its applicability under the same conditions to the rest of the autonomies. As Sánchez's ministers have not failed to point out. Something similar to what happened before the process, when Jordi Pujol, Pasqual Maragall, José Montilla or Artur Mas were in charge in the Generalitat.
The businessmen have not understood the absence of the minister, since they consider that going to the meeting does not prevent them from holding advanced conversations with the socialists, while it is an additional argument for the PP communities, always willing to stir up the rag of comparative grievance, but in this case without reason and without any material advantage. And they add that doing so, raising political tension with the rest of Spain, on the basis of a meager minority of 33 seats in the Parliament entails high doses of adventurism. The calibration of the relationship of forces must be part of the political calculation.
