Twelve years later, business and economic organizations in Catalonia have once again asked the State to reform the regional funding model. On September 20, 2012, Artur Mas went to Madrid by car to interview Mariano Rajoy with this intention, having the support of this same Catalan business class. President Mas put on the table the demand for a tax pact and clarified to the President of the Spanish Government that a system different from the Basque one, with a shared Tax Agency, could be negotiated. Rajoy's response was that the fiscal pact was outside the Constitution and that he was not prepared to dismember the Spanish Treasury. Rajoy did not even acknowledge that Catalonia suffered special abuse. In addition, he reminded him of the economic difficulties of the Executive due to the crisis facing Europe and particularly Spain.
On his way out, Mas held a press conference in Madrid in which he highlighted the incomprehension of the central government and on his return he was received as a hero in Plaça Sant Jaume. Rajoy made no gesture and Mas refused to do a Tarradellas, that is, to create expectations despite the fact that the meeting had gone very badly. From there, the process grew like a snowball rolling down, until they crumbled when they collided hard with reality. Or to be more precise, with article 155 of the Constitution.
Catalan politics has returned to square one, but with some advantages. Which? They are various. One, that the main interlocutor is not the PP, but the PSOE, which desperately needs the Catalan partners to govern. Two, that the Government has stated that it foresees a reform of the model because it is aware that the current one does not work for more. And three, that the Catalan economic world presents a double option: either a fiscal pact or a federal funding model that respects ordinariness.
If Rajoy slammed the door on Mas, Sánchez keeps the door ajar. And in these twelve years, pragmatism is imposing itself on emotion in Catalan politics. It's not groundhog day. At least Phil the groundhog announced this time that spring will come sooner. And without scares.
