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Central government\u2019s spending plans for 2014, which drastically cut investment in Catalonia, have caught Barcelona\u2019s business elites in an offside trap precisely at a time when these sectors were calling for a gesture from the Spanish government towards Catalan society. In a highly informative article in the Business pages on the 2nd of this month, Manel P\u00e9rez reported that our economic leaders have greeted the figures released by the Finance Minister with \u2018a degree of bewilderment and a feeling of contempt\u2019. On the 1st October, a palpable feeling of disappointment was apparent in Barcelona’s most important boardrooms.<\/p>\n
The interview with Montoro published in last Sunday\u2019s La Vanguardia did little to calm the nerves of the aforementioned local elites. On the contrary. Montoro, the man responsible for the national budget, \u00a0systematically refutes the evidence and ends with a cynical note that, I suspect, will be remembered in the future: \u2018Ultimately, it\u2019s not a matter of being blinded by the figures, it depends on the plans that are on the table\u2019. Incredible. If you are the minister of finance and the figures suggest a reality that contradicts your point of view, you simply have to forget the data and spout your propaganda as if reality were but an irrelevant afterthought.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the rub: What does Montoro mean when he says, \u2018There are plans on the table\u2019? We know that the PP\u2019s plan is to recentralize Spain and drain the autonomous regions, while strengthening Madrid\u2019s role as the business and financial core. This is to be done to the detriment of the Catalan elites, regardless of the fact that they operate part of their business outside of Catalonia and have never shown themselves to be obsessed with their identity. We mustn\u2019t forget that the epicenter is to be found on Bernabeu Stadium\u2019s crowded VIP box. Perhaps that is why the minister himself dares to say that Barcelona\u2019s Chamber of Commerce has an economic vision which is \u2018from the past\u2019.<\/p>\n
It is clear, therefore, that Mariano Rajoy\u2019s government believes that the notion that Catalonia receives its due in proportion to what it contributes to the state\u2019s coffers is outdated and obsolete. Let\u2019s be perfectly clear about this, there is no other plan for Spain. As was explained by Professor Ferran Requejo, the Granada document agreed to by the PSOE can neither be considered federal nor plurinational. In other words: as Alicia Sanchez-Camacho recently found out, the only other way for Catalonia to stay in Spain has proved a dead end.<\/p>\n
The Catalan business world\u2019s official response to the budget has been clear but extremely moderate, as was to be expected. The article co-written for La Vanguardia by Joaquim Gay de Montell\u00e0 and Miquel Valls on this issue is an example of what would be the spirit of \u2018the Third Way\u2019, if such a path existed: patiently asking Madrid to \u2018reconsider\u2019 a political commitment that is not accidental and which, according to Minister Mas-Colell, is in no way a retaliation for the CiU government\u2019s pro-sovereignty stance. Is there anyone who will actually finally listen to the educated arguments of our officials? The calls for sovereignty continue to grow, but it does little to encourage the brains in the Moncloa to alter the script they wrote some time ago.<\/p>\n
What will our elites do from now on? Rajoy\u2019s harmful budgets and Montoro\u2019s evident disdain indicate that the supposed influence of these sectors on policy decisions in Madrid is now limited, if not non-existent. This is a serious matter and poses many questions, both inside and outside Catalonia. If our elites are unable to effectively influence the center of state power, what authority will they have over the middle and working class in Catalonia in the short and long term? The same could be said of those politicians who have based their reputation on the Madrid-Barcelona shuttle. The Catalonia of the autonomies is going astray, it has come undone. Those business leaders who have ridiculed Artur Mas for wishing to build a Catalan state instead of being the Spanish state\u2019s docile, misunderstood reformer, must now rethink their opinions in the light of Rajoy\u2019s budget and other decisions.<\/p>\n
The more active sectors of the middle classes, more aware of economic and linguistic grievances and recognition for Catalonia, have been steadily disengaging themselves from the classic objective of reforming Spain, in particular since the Constitutional Court\u2019s ruling on the Statute. The priority of this majority is to achieve a new distribution of power which guarantees more just treatment (whether political, fiscal or cultural). Nowadays, such a concept can only relate to one concept: independence.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as usual, the priority of the Catalan elites is political and social stability, as is the case the world over. Problems appear when stability is accompanied by unfair treatment for society as a whole. Order or freedom? Those at the top look down on those below and wonder how the problem can be solved. A fiscal agreement? A Third Way? Federalism? The Catalan bourgeoisie fail to understand how the PP can happily leave the situation to fester. Those at the top look down on those at the bottom again (the ones wearing yellow T-shirts [protesting cuts in education]) and think that, in spite of having everything stacked against them, they might just win. It is for this reason that Oriol Junqueras, who some couldn\u2019t even bear to see, has finally been officially welcomed in one of the most important boardrooms in the city. Just in case.<\/p>\n
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