Attitudes and values for a Catalan response

Because we are clearly entering a new phase. After the years of the Transition and the twenty long years of Spanish democracy, of the adoption of the Statute and the consolidation of the Catalan Generalitat, and social and economic progress, after a long period of European and global advancement, things have changed.

This change began earlier in Catalonia. Pascual Maragall, during his presidency of the Generalitat, already warned that we were about to take a roller coaster ride, and that was some years ago. A ride whose consequences remain unclear, but that for the moment have produced some worrying liabilities.

Indeed, the change of scenery takes place at a difficult time, combining the economic crisis, tense political relations with Madrid, our internal problems, and a certain degree of bewilderment in Catalan society itself.

But we in Catalonia are neither nouveau riche nor decadent. The time has long passed when we were amused by what Francesc Pujols used to say, that “the day would come when the Catalans, for the fact of being what they are, would be able to travel the World free of charge.

A rather bad joke. Now, always, also eighty years ago. Neither then nor now will anybody be complaisant for free. They will only judge us by our weight, and if we take seriously what we are and what we do, we will be judged more positively.

The nouveau riche is now found outside of Catalonia, in the rest of the State. Probably for a short time, and no longer with the exhibitionism that they have shown to date.

We are not nouveau riche. However, nor are we decadent. We live under pressure, from Spain and from the global situation. This has made us work with a considerable economic and political handicap. We have special challenges, social and of identity. We have even made some collective blunders that have harmed us. And all this has given rise to confusion and has marked a turning point in our self-respect. Yet we are not decadent. Were we so, all the negative factors that apply pressure on us would leave us out of the game. This is not the case.

It is not the case, because as we have frequently said – and we will not tire of repeating it- we have highly consistent assets. Now it is important to face reality. This we need to do by asking what we have. Well, we have what we have. It is with this rather than with fantasies that we must face the future.

We have what we have. Very simple.

We have:
- a sound economic tradition
- a noteworthy capacity for public initiative
- a will and experience of international openness
- a sense of identity and a will to be
- a tradition of tolerance
- a positive experience of the ascenseur social
- we have had, and still have, our traditional values of toil and personal endeavour, although we need to bolster them

We have what we have and we are what we are: a country under pressure but with solid foundations. And this is what we need to work with. If we use this well we will make headway. We can.

But there is something else:

We need a political class that is neither agitated nor exhibitionistic. Nor frivolous, nor partisan and bent on power for power’s sake. Nor addicted to castes. A political class that efficiently harnesses the power and the resources it has, without overregulating or overacting (or over-pseudo-acting). Put another way, without noise for the sake of noise. Responding to real needs and clear goals and not to whims, ostentation, urges to be in the limelight and so forth.

Seriousness and common sense. Incompatible with the “no culture”. And with constant pranks.

This is not a Lutheran catechism. Nor is it a Decalogue of painful and cheerless hardships. It is simply a reflexion on what attitude a country seeking to move forward, without surplus of resources or facilities, needs to demand from its political class and its people. It has enough material, moral and intellectual assets if it puts its mind to what it is doing, if it  advocates solid rather than liquid values, if it wastes no time or energy on silly games and vacuous spectacle, if it recovers and knows how to apply the rules of the common good properly

And if this comes with balanced ambition and if it does not renounce its own dignity and its legitimate pride.

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We will address the second question pending in the next editorial: after everything that has happened over the last five years, what will be the game of Catalonia in Spain? In the short run, it will not be at all important or productive. But we must not rush to improve it. We do not know if the Spaniards are, but right now this would not harm us more than what it has done already. We have been made to work with an economic and social deficit for some time. However, despite this Catalonia can move ahead if at home we remain strong and consistent, serious and self-demanding, if we really strive.