Destroy or build?

Alfredo Pastor

Professor of Economics, Iese


We run a serious risk that today's situation would deteriorate to such an extent that, once again, our history might end badly. It has been written that Spain would cease to exist when Catalonia and Euskadi would eventually be independent and the PSOE would become the Andalusian Party. It is up to the reader to decide whether we are not approaching that end.

"We will not be less!” can be heard in Andalusia. "We want to be more!" can be heard in Catalonia and is thought about in Euskadi. "We will not negotiate with those who want to break Spain!" someone is shouting from Madrid, and now also from Seville. During the next months the electoral rhetoric, on the one hand, and the atmosphere that will surround the view of the 1-O trial, on the other, will poison the environment even more. Some will appeal, as they have been doing, to our most primal instincts, while others will try to turn the trial into a general cause against Spanish institutions. No need to speculate on how things can evolve to conclude that, in the best case, they will leave us a very bad country. So much so, that for the first time in many years it is not unreasonable to imagine that the Spain in which we have lived is in the process of disappearing, not necessarily as a result of a cataclysm, but because of the mixture of envy, longing for power, daydreams and lies that are facing us with the worst of ourselves, thus eating away our society.

Is that what we want? Otherwise, do not believe that it is enough to wait seated until it stops raining. We could take advantage of the opportunity provided by the independence frenzy to brighten our institutions, but that will not happen: the forces that both sides have unleashed are not forces of unity but of division, and are destined to destroy rather than to build. That is, without exaggerating, the question: destroy or build up Spain.

If we want to build up we have to start by facing three facts. The first is that achieving the independence of Catalonia is today impossible. Not only because a majority of the citizens of Catalonia do not want it, so that a unilateral declaration of independence would lead us to a civil conflict, but also because the rest of Spain does not want it; the Spanish state would not tolerate it and nobody would force it to do it. The second is that the pre-autonomic Spain that seems to propose the PP is equally impossible. The state of the autonomies is very improvable, but nobody will renounce to it for the sake of greater efficiency, of which, by the way, the state Administration is not the best example. Perhaps the "coffee for all" approach was an error, but today it is as consolidated as the union of Aragon and Castile in 1479, and few doubt that the state of the autonomies has been more beneficial for the whole of the Spanish population than a centralized Spain, along the line of France, in which the real Spain has never felt comfortable. The third is that we live in a world where the influence that a country can have depends in large part on its size. The European states do not seem to want to admit that their individual role in the world today is very secondary. Only a more cohesive Europe can aspire to make its voice heard. The voice of Spain is only occasionally heard. An independent Catalonia, even within Europe, would only have a role in the few occasions in which the EU protocol would grant it.

Accepting these three truths is only a necessary condition, but the supporters of building up have much more to offer. On the one hand, Catalanism is much more than a pro-independence movement which, after inflicting considerable damage to our institutions - perhaps to a good extent deserved - has paid off its last adventure with a resounding failure. On the other hand, the great projects that could build up a more productive Spain can only be undertaken for the whole country, so that having a Spain not only more united but, above all, better united would be beneficial for all. To build up you have to start by talking. Not each one for their own and only audience, but with each other. In Catalonia, many initiatives have emerged that want to promote this approach. We must encourage and extend them, and try to make them visible, since in the climate we live there are those who prefer to maintain their constructive spirit with prudent silence, and they would appreciate knowing that they are not alone. We must not forget, finally, that in the European environment there are winds of disorientation and rupture blowing, so that wanting to build up might seem to be going against the tide. However, the effort is worth it, because a sincere dialogue, based on the three facts mentioned, will prove that unity, not imposed but accepted, is better than a division that today, unfortunately, we cannot yet rule out.


https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20190129/4671694619/destruir-o-construir.html