Even if, in theory, any year that is just beginning is a year of opportunities, in no year since 1996 has there occurred the situation that is present in 2024, nor have the circumstances been so favourable for the interests of Catalonia. It could be said that in 2012 there were very good auguries and that in 2017 a magical moment was wasted. A lot has already been written about all this and you can't turn back the clock. There was also a Pedro Sánchez government under construction in 2019 and the Republican Left (ERC) did not know how to make the most of its strength in the Congress of Deputies for four years. But, as Winston Churchill said, if we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future. And that is something we cannot afford.
The 2023 Spanish general election has reinforced the weight of Catalan independentism and, since the two pro-independence parties will not agree to form a common front that blocks the legislature if the progress that Catalonia needs does not occur, the best thing that can happen is for their vindictive rivalry to lead to some benefits. For some results to be achieved - promises are something else and apart from the use of Catalan in Congress, there is little so far - and for the PSOE to recover that face of panic it had when the investiture of Pedro Sánchez was in air.
The chances of negotiating well and carrying out what has been promised are high, no matter how much the PSOE tries to wriggle out of its commitments
More than once I have been asked what the main difficulty was in a negotiation between a Catalan politician and the government of Spain. And I have always responded the same way: the vocation, the years of experience, the way the state is structured so that any progress made by Catalonia in a negotiation is blocked. Knowing how to wait for the moment when one can emerge victorious from a negotiation with Madrid. In lucid comments that he made on October 3rd, Jordi Pujol told this newspaper that Catalan negotiators had to avoid falling into candour. It was more of a message for Together for Catalonia (Junts), but also for ERC, which has the same number of deputies in Madrid: seven.
Many times, when Catalanism has negotiated with Madrid, it has lost due to its naivety, its lack of malice. Even back at the beginning of Spain's democratic transition, Josep Tarradellas joked about the typical Catalan who goes to Madrid, is given a pat on the back and a few compliments, and returns to Catalonia satisfied, but with nothing substantive. It will be a bad year for dialectical excesses this 2024, since the chances of negotiating well and carrying out what has been promised are high, no matter how much the PSOE tries to wriggle out of its commitments and roll back on some of the red lines that it has crossed.
If the full benefit of the opportunities of this 2024 is achieved, the year that is now starting will not end with the gloomy expressions of 2023 and with this feeling that the great chasm that must be crossed in the next twelve months, through solid negotiation and results, is getting bigger and deeper.