Pere Aragonès is overwhelmed by the solemn and transcendent record. Dressed in the jacket of the big advertisements, far from showing off his figure, he rather adopts the uncomfortable aspect of the gentleman who wears a size too big. Among his political abilities - you don't win an election with Carles Puigdemont or approve budgets with 33 deputies without having many - there is not that of an intoxicating leadership capable of altering the monotony of the days. Aragonès is politically rather similar to a Vespino, a reliable engine but without reprise.
With the departure of JxCat from the Government, the president of the Generalitat ran out of the wildcard of the internal confrontation that provided him with many dividends just by comparison: in one corner the republican cohesion and in the other the pot of crickets. Now, with the entire Palau de la Generalitat to himself, he has great difficulty in controlling and placing the Government's action at the center of the public conversation in a way that suits his interests. When it's not the PSC, it's JxCat, and when it's not the two together who steal his wallet.
He and his closest court seem unable to take note that they only have 33 deputies in Parliament. And that is why any attempt to lead the agenda without prior dialogue with the other political formations is wrecked in the face of the reality of a weak Executive, caught between the opposition of one or another sign and character. The failure of the party summit to deal with the drought problem has been the best photograph of the anemia that has taken hold of the Republicans.
The presentation of the calendar of the clarity agreement by Pere Aragonès is an extemporaneous attempt to transfer the image that among the republican ranks there is leadership, conviction and direction. The equivalent, in procedural language, of a road map. We are, in reality, facing a case that the Anglo-Saxons would define with the aphorism fake it until you make it. In other words, pretend you have something until – with a bit of luck, we would add – you manage to have it for real.
The fact that the Parliament was opposed on September 30 to what Pere Aragonès is now proposing again does not count for the president. In fact, after the sausage of the chamber, he insisted again on his idea in the Christmas speech, in which he set the clarity agreement as an absolute priority for 2023. The agreement between Catalans this year and negotiation with the Spanish Government in 2024 for a referendum under the conditions that are agreed. And they were happy and ate aniseeds!
We are dealing with an offer that is more partisan than governmental. ERC needs a flag on the national axis with which to go to electoral appointments. Aragonès already knows perfectly well that his idea is unviable with a general election in sight that forces the noisy discrepancy between parties. And if that's the case, why does he insist on it? Well, because what he and his party intend is actually to supermineralize and vitaminize themselves thanks to the failure of what they propose. Something like: our proposal is the most generous and the only viable one to resolve the political conflict. The selfishness of others makes it impractical.
Only that the clarity agreement is the re-release of a show we have already seen: summits of impossible parties, academics going out in good faith to give intellectual solidity to the proposal and entities and associations also participating in the discussion To add to what we already know from the last decade, a most pleasant novelty is now planned: the participation of eight hundred citizens packed in groups of one hundred per square meter who will reproduce the conversations of the neighborhood meetings at the time of 'approve a spill. The initiative has another underlying problem: the audience that has to buy tickets for the revamped version of the show is reluctant to continue to be entertained by gimmicks they are already familiar with.
So that Aragonès' agreement of clarity - impossible limited to pro-independence; utopian open to socialists and commoners – stillborn. Another universal deluge is easier than a happy ending for the idea proposed by the Republican president. At least for now. Aragonès and ERC are taking a risk by trying to take advantage of a failure that they have already assumed. They show obstinate character, yes. Almost as much as the drought.
