Could the Spanish political parties - fundamentally, the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and this new franchise of the Franco regime which the Vox party represents - hold elections in Andalusia without talking about Catalonia? Difficult, very difficult. They talk about Catalonia in the Spanish elections, they talk about Catalonia in the Catalan elections, they'll talk about Catalonia in the municipal and European elections in May, and yet they don't talk about Catalonia around a negotiation table to hear what Catalans want. Everyone has their proposals, but we Catalans also have our own.
Down there, in any of the meetings held this first campaign weekend, there is talk about making pro-independence group Arran illegal, about judge Pablo Llarena, about the prisoners and exiles, about TV3, about rebellion, about the Mossos police, about Trapero, about the social harmony in Catalonia, about yellow ribbons, about the Catalan prisons, about reapplying article 155, about eliminating Spain's autonomous communities, about Brussels, about the Catalan Socialist Party, about the independence movement, about the violence in Catalan streets, about the break up of Spain, about the CDR groups, about the CUP party, about the law in Catalonia, about the pro-independence media, about the Spanish government budget in a surely moribund state being negotiated in prison and in Brussels, about Puigdemont, Junqueras, Torra... thus constructing a good part of the political discourse heard in Malaga, Seville, El Ejido, Córdoba and Granada.
It is not strange that in the midst of this pandemonium, Andalusian president Susana Díaz would get nervous because Andalusia does not exist in the debate of its own election campaign. She, far removed from the politics of Pedro Sánchez, far removed from all that smells of Sanchezism, could conduct a campaign more comfortably if Rajoy were in power. How can you badmouth Madrid if the person in charge up there is your own party leader, Susana? With all the eagerness that the Andalusian president has to exploit an anti-Catalan line as she has in other electoral campaigns. As she did less than three years ago, when she said the interest paid on Andalusian mortgages would end up in Catalonia in the hands of a Catalan treasury, or that Andalusians would end up paying the tolls for the Catalan motorways. Today, the bar of anti-Catalan sentiment has been raised so high that, for the moment, Susana Diaz has been left behind.
A final point: keep a close eye on Vox who, despite not being entitled to TV time in the election, may end up obtaining seats in the Andalusian Parliament, and not just one or two. Unrestrained Francoism seems to have returned.