The pitched battle that has broken out between Together for Catalonia (JxCat) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) in recent days is not good news for Catalan independence. Not for the movement as a whole, nor for the parties involved in this family squabble using an insolence in their language which is almost at the level of insult, nor for the exiles spread across several countries from Belgium via Scotland to Switzerland, nor for the nine political prisoners who have been imprisoned for a combined total of 4,957 days, nor for the families of the prisoners and exiles who suffer because of the situation of their loved ones. Nor for those who, from vantage points removed from the political party clash, simply want the maximum unity possible.
It is quite obvious that this isn't the best way to do things, and that the latest and most dangerous disagreement, relating to the provincial authority, the Diputació de Barcelona, could contribute to worsening the disagreement between JxCAT and ERC. This article is not long enough to go into all the spats between the two major pro-independence parties over the past two years and the grievances of each one regarding its ally/adversary. Today we are talking about the Diputació de Barcelona, as we have previously talked of the Sant Cugat and Figueres city councils, not to mention the regulation of housing rentals, the replacement of the parliamentary deputies suspended by the Supreme Court, Puigdemont's appeal against the decision of the Catalan Parliament's bureau, the failure to invest him as president, disagreements at Lledoners prison...
Not all of this is equally comparable, certainly, but in the eighteen months of the Catalan legislature, the tension has been ratcheting up and up until it has brought us to the current situation. A state of affairs that neither Catalonia's Parliament nor its government will be able to sustain for much longer. The confrontation must be wound back, unity of action recovered and, if necessary, all of the many disagreements across the municipal map that are still reversible, in the municipal councils, the Diputació de Barcelona and the Catalan government, should be put back on the table. At other times this has been achieved, to a greater or lesser degree. Now we should try it.