Antoni Bassas’ analysis: “Wales vs England”

Earlier today, standing around ARA’s coffee vending machine, some workmates who commute every day on Renfe’s metropolitan line were telling one of many stories which —if you travel on that line yourself— you probably know by heart: very often the service that is announced on the digital display does not actually match the train stopping on that very platform. If you don’t know that, you can easily find yourself on a train headed somewhere that you didn’t want to go to.

The poor service provided by Renfe’s local network in Catalonia is an ancient reality that hundreds of thousands of Catalans have experienced on a daily basis for years. Elections and governments come and go, but trains remain the perfect example of Spain’s insufficient spending in Catalonia. Let’s not mention the high-speed Mediterranean railway network, which has cropped up during this election campaign. There is no service between Malaga and Tarragona. But, needless to say, Malaga, Alicante and Valencia have a proper railway connection with Madrid. Obviously, Madrid is attempting to flesh out a particular notion of Spain where all roads lead to Madrid, which is at odds with the economic logic of a linkup with Europe.

While on the subject of trains, ports and goods, in Switzerland a few days ago they rolled out the Gotthard railway tunnel, which has halved the travel time from Milan to Zurich and has also opened up a great freight line between northern and southern Europe, especially for the ports of Rotterdam and Genoa. Does anyone really think that Spain is at all interested in the ports of Valencia, Tarragona and Barcelona?

As a matter of fact, when Catalans have taken to the streets to fight for a better future —Catalonia accounts for 18 and 25 per cent of Spain’s GDP and total exports, respectively—, the response we have had is talk like Susana Díaz’s, a discourse that accuses Catalonia of being privileged and implicitly threatens us with boycotts (1). Obviously, Díaz is scared: the PSOE is not expected to fare well at the polls later this month and she is hoping to become the new leader as soon as she can be rid of Pedro Sánchez. The only region where the PSOE still seems to be holding the line is Andalusia, so she is hoping to soften the blow on her home ground. How? By resorting to anti-Catalan discourse, which is a time-honoured strategy, too. In fact, it is a way of understanding Spain and wooing voters, albeit with contradictions: on some days, if Catalonia becomes independent, then Catalan pensioners will lose their pay; on other days, it is the Spanish pensioners who would be left penniless if Catalonia were to break away.

For too long now we’ve been stuck in time loop, a curse that becomes unbearable when we contemplate the speed of political and economic change in our world: namely, the debate on Brexit, the refugees, the fourth industrial revolution, the gap between the young and the older generations, inequality and so on. Meanwhile, the world is changing at lightning speed, not always for the better, but changing nonetheless. Spain’s political project for Catalonia could not be more tattered, ancient and stale. In fact, they can’t (and won’t) even explain how come today England is playing against Wales in the UEFA Euro 2016.

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(1) Susana Díaz is the incumbent president of Andalusia and the regional PSOE leader. Some say she harbours the ambition to become the next Spanish leader of the Socialist Party and take over from Pedro Sánchez. Her populist, anti-Catalan discourse is a vote-winner in Andalusia.