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“Without water, in the dark and the children do not know how to read, write or add.” This is how Salvador Illa summarized his criticism of the management of the ERC Government to refer to the lack of foresight to face the drought, the delay in the implementation of renewable energies and the poor results of Catalan students in the Pisa report. The opposition leader said that the independence leaders have dedicated too much effort and attention in the last ten or twelve years to the process and have forgotten what is really important for the citizens. Has Catalonia lost trains while it was focusing on the discussion about independence?
The causes of these shortcomings are multiple and it is difficult to evaluate how much the confrontation between the central and Catalan governments that led to the process could have influenced them. Obviously, the PSC defends that it is decisive, while ERC or Junts reject it and maintain that everything would be better if they had the tools of their own State. In any case, it is indisputable that the pro-independence parties have been reorienting their discourse towards other issues beyond secession. ERC was the first to change course and now Junts is beginning to do so.
Jordi Pujol also focused on the nationalist narrative, but did not forget to defend his management, even with slogans as explicit as “la feina ben feta”. The current president, Pere Aragonès, arrived with the firm intention of recovering the institutionality of the position, marking distance with his predecessor, Quim Torra, an independence activist, and avoiding the noise of a coalition government with Junts. The recipe was to embrace a flat profile and avoid any conflictive issues, as is the case with the expansion of the El Prat airport. That led to an image of inaction that is now revealed against it.
In ERC they thought that, once Junts was out of the Government, its executive work would be valued by the voters. But the Republicans already verified in the elections of July 23 that the management is not profitable at the polls. Or, put another way, good management does not help win elections, but bad management leads to defeat. The poor educational results or the drought project a devastating image of the Government, although the responsibility is shared with those who also previously exercised that responsibility.
Now, one year after the elections, ERC has begun to adopt some media impact measures to regain steam. They are the classic announcements of aid or tax discounts. For example, the voucher for school supplies or the tax reduction for those who earn less than 30,000 euros. He also focused his agreement for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez on the transfer of Rodalies and the forgiveness of part of the Generalitat's debt, rather than on competing with Junts for a referendum. Even Junts will include financial claims in its negotiation with the PSOE.
The Republicans are trying to follow in the footsteps of EH Bildu, which is growing electorally with an agenda completely focused on social issues and not on independence, although sometimes the ERC leaders return to the procés discourse. The words of the EH Bildu spokesperson in Congress, Mertxe Aizpurua, were very revealing, who warned Aragonès this week that the call for a self-determination referendum is a “serious” matter that must be preceded by a “serene” debate. “Haste is a bad advisor on this issue,” she concluded when asked about an article by the president in the Financial Times in which she asks Sánchez for courage to agree to a sovereignty consultation.
Whether Catalonia's delays in some matters are a consequence of the process can be discussed. That the rulers dedicated more time and effort to the desire for independence than to other issues is evident. And that the Catalan media agenda was completely flooded by the process, even more so. The latter is also relevant, since the concerns of public opinion were dominated by the dichotomy between yes or no independence. What is talked about is as important as what is not talked about. Now that Catalonia is muttering lamentations about education, Madrid is vociferating about coups d'état plotted by the PSOE in collusion with the independentists.
