On the noble floors of large Catalan companies there is a certain air of optimism after the speech by former president Carles Puigdemont last Tuesday in Brussels. The patrons make a pragmatic reading of the words of the Junts leader and move away from the literal interpretations that are boldly applied in the media and politics in Madrid.
Optimism for several reasons. Puigdemont has maintained the script that he presented to the president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre, when the two met in Brussels last May and also in subsequent conversations. This was summarized in the willingness to negotiate with the candidate with the possibility of forming a government after the elections of 23 J, in this case Pedro Sánchez, discarding the idea that the independentistas were tempted by the idea of the worse the better; emphasis on the demand for amnesty for those retaliated by the process; interest in the return of Catalan companies that moved their headquarters outside of Catalonia in 2017; and avoid specific demands for a self-determination referendum. (La Vanguardia of July 30 and August 6). They consider that on Tuesday Puigdemont made clear his openness to dialogue with the PSOE and that the first proof was the agreement on the Congress Table and the pact for the use of co-official languages in that institution.
Regarding corporate headquarters, the former president made explicit reference to the matter in his parliament. But in a way that sought to minimize the reproach to the businessmen - who at the time of the events were described as traitors - to place the matter in the context of the criticism of the "systematic suffocation of the Catalan economy" by the State, "of "which is a painful example of the strategy of change in business headquarters encouraged by a royal decree of urgent measures approved by the central government (of Mariano Rajoy) and which is still in force."
A clear nod to the employers of the economy. As is known, Catalan business organizations have great interest in encouraging the return of these companies, necessary to recover the role of leading economy in Spain (a position that they do not renounce), but they consider that it will only be possible as a result of a great agreement. between Madrid and Barcelona, which guarantees political stability and rules out unilateral measures. And they believe they see that now the first steps may be taken for a great agreement that changes the state of Catalonia's relations with the rest of Spain, the fit, a concept that has caused so many headaches for the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez. Feijóo.
Third. On Tuesday, the now European parliamentarian did not forget to include a program of economic demands that partly coincides with the aspirations of the economic barons, with some discrepancy, but on a lesser scale. He recalled that there is “a fiscal deficit of more than 20,000 million per year. A thing as basic to people's lives as trains does not work. (...) We do not train enough doctors and we cannot pay them as they deserve. Our minimum wage is unfair considering the cost of living. Young people cannot access housing... The Government does not execute the budgets”.
A classic string of demands that are part of the business vademecum and in which the bourgeoisie feels much more comfortable, as it already made presciently clear in the first debates on the reform of the Statute. New gesture towards businessmen, certainly not just the big ones; also towards the little ones represented by Mònica Roca, the president of the Chamber.
From those words, some conspicuous members of the reduced Barcelona upper bourgeoisie are already speaking these days with emphasis, and perhaps excessive haste, of a new political scenario in Catalonia in which Puigdemont and Junts would be writing the first pages of a reborn Neo-Pujolian convergence, adapted to the world of the 21st century and the political consequences of the post-procés. The growing understanding of Jaume Collboni, the new socialist mayor of Barcelona, with the Junts candidate, Xavier Trias, also fuels that vision.
But that optimism also has buts. Firstly, Puigdemont's proposal is formulated in terms that are "very harsh and not very empathetic towards the rest of Spain", according to the point of view of some large businessmen, who also believe that "this makes it very difficult to sustain negotiations that could last." a lot of time". And in his opinion, the Junts leader suggests that “it is only the other side that takes the blame for what happened, something politically complex.” They hope that as the days go by, realism will gain importance in the public interventions of the Junts leaders. We must not forget that the position of the economic elites is always ambivalent and there is no unanimity: they voted overwhelmingly for the PP in the general elections and for Trias, not for Junts, in the municipal elections and now they want to shore up an agreement between the socialists and the independentistas. The euphemism that sums up this contradiction is pragmatism.
For the Catalan bourgeoisie, however, this is only one side of the problem. Another of equal importance is that his point of view is not shared by the rest of the businessmen in Spain. Not in the CEOE chaired by Antonio Garamendi, as in the rest of the business organizations. The economic world considers that an amnesty and other possible agreements on the reform of the political structure weaken the State and introduce legal uncertainty, in addition to projecting a negative image of the country abroad.
This front of rejection obviously includes the PP and the businessmen believe that without incorporating Feijóo's party into the new political consensus at some point, the pressure for the negotiations to fail could end up being unbearable. Does the Catalan bourgeoisie have the capacity to influence these variables and improve the atmosphere towards a new political consensus on the solution to the Catalan question?
