Not that long ago, the businesspeople of the Puente Aéreo1 were reluctant to have José María Aznar sit at their table. They were times in which the person in charge of the right was Mariano Rajoy and Aznar was in the museum of politically faded figures without real influence. All that changed, in part, with the motion of no-confidence which took Pedro Sánchez to the Moncloa government palace and with PSOE's defeat in Andalusia; who knows if that was the prelude to a government of the triplets (PP's Casado, Cs' Rivera and Vox's Abascal) in Spain. At the end of October, the Puente Aéreo received Pablo Casado in the headquarters of Atresmedia (the group that owns channels Antena 3 and La Sexta) and this Tuesday has received José María Aznar, exceptionally in a hotel and not at the headquarters of one of the platform's members. The former prime minister didn't even have to insist to present his vision of Spain between courses and how he plans to dismantle Catalan autonomy. It's been his obsession politically since he left power and personally since circumstances forced him to reach an agreement with Catalan nationalists and Jordi Pujol in 1996 to reach the Moncloa.
The Aznar method is apparently simple: sooner rather than later, Spain will have a far-right government which will have to put an end to the times Catalonia is living through. It will have to do so aggressively, not making the same mistakes as Rajoy and getting rid of the situation independence supporters are trying to create. Although his starting point appears to be to reestablish the Constitution, it's actually precisely the opposite: to end with it. From the recentralisation of sensitive powers (language, education, prison and police) to keeping Catalan autonomy suspended for a long period of time and the nomination of a government nominated by Madrid.
Aznar is speaking for no one to reply to him and no one to contradict him. Jordi Barbeta's article explaining the lunch is excellent (in Catalan/Spanish). It reads almost as if he had been there, the way his sources have explained it to him. That the independence movement should continue bickering is not encouraging news. It will have to face up to this almost pre-democratic landslide if the result suggested currently by the polls comes about. The Catalan referendum trial of the political prisoners which will start shortly at the Supreme Court is on a similar wavelength: "Teach the coup plotters a lesson". Aznar and the judges are saying almost the same thing.
Translator's note: 1. The Puente Aéreo is a forum of businesspeople from Madrid and Barcelona.