The Catalans want to change the page: they vote tired of the independence hurricane, they want concord – Opinion

It is the obvious recognition of Pedro Sánchez’s appeasing role, which allowed Catalonia to move from the high independence tension of 2017 to a cordial relationship with the central power in Madrid, with independence in an anesthetized phase.

The average of the various polls on next Sunday’s elections gives the socialist PSC between 28 and 29% of the votes, and two independence parties following in preferences: Junts (of the “exiled” Carles Puigdemont) with 21% and Esquerra Republican with 17%. Spanish right-wingers do not reach 17% in Catalonia: the PP appears with 9% and Vox with 7.5%.

The right-wing accuse Sánchez of betraying the kingdom of Spain by making pacts with independence, the way he arranged to obtain a parliamentary majority to govern Spain.

It is a fact that the left-wing government headed by Pedro Sánchez depends on Basque and Catalan nationalists and independenceists to have an absolute majority to govern from Madrid.

But it is also a fact that the pacts sponsored by Sánchez – pardons, amnesty, transfer of rights – made it possible to introduce democratic normality between the governance of Catalonia and that of the Kingdom of Spain. Barcelona and Madrid returned to dialogue and were capable of understanding.

In 2017, the Spanish government, then led by Rajoy, opted to judicialize the open conflict with independence initiatives in Catalonia. And the Madrid justice system had a heavy hand with sentences of between 9 and 13 years in prison for the nine main Catalan separatist leaders who promoted the popular consultation not authorized by the Madrid government.

The 2017 Catalan crisis dramatically ruptured the cohesion of the Kingdom of Spain. Many families were divided, there were those who stopped talking to each other because of the wall that was built between Madrid and Baeelona, ​​with Spanish justice in great convergence with the Madrid government.

In June 2018, socialist Pedro Sánchez formed a majority of leftists, which includes Basque and Catalan nationalists and independenceists, who have since governed the Kingdom of Spain.

The pardons promoted allowed Junqueras, the most political of the independence leaders, to get out of jail in the first of the 13 years he had been sentenced to.

With Sánchez governing in Madrid, the tension between Catalonia and the central government was reduced. But the gap between left and right has deepened in Spain. There is a lot of hatred and a lot of poisoning in political and social relations in Spain.

Next Sunday’s elections in Catalonia take place three weeks after regional elections also in the Basque Country, where the nationalist vote was the majority, but with the Basque socialists revalidating in Euskadi the alliance they have with the PNV moderates for the government of Spain.

The Catalan campaign shows that Catalans are tired of the turmoil of the battles surrounding the issue of independence.

An opinion study, promoted by the Center d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO) on the priorities of Catalans puts the management of public services at the top, then the standard of living and economic stability, followed by the climate emergency (Catalonia is suffering drought and the threat of aridity), then, in fourth place in priorities, the financing of autonomy by the central government, followed by the migratory flow (huge increase in illegal immigrants arriving via the Mediterranean) and only in sixth place does the issue of independence appear from Catalonia.

The Catalans suffered a lot following the 2017 independence hurricane.

Now, the desire for harmony and recovery of quality of life is prevailing among the majority of Catalans.

This is certainly what will result from the vote this Sunday. A very fragmented parliament is to be expected, requiring a lot of negotiation for the formation of the government based in Barcelona. An alliance between socialists (PSC) and the republican left (ERC) is likely. It will then be up to negotiation which of the two parties nominates the head of the next Catalan government. Socialist Salvador Illa appears in the first line.