I suppose the act of going on a march alongside Spanish Socialist ministers, Catalan Socialist leaders, and the top leadership of the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox through the streets of Barcelona, all wanting to be present together yet maintaining their personal space, is part of the new broom which is now sweeping through Spanish unionism: everyone in the same boat, against the Catalan independence movement. Later, they quarrel with one another - or make it seem that they do - but, there, they were all matey together although this time without a group photo. In this atmosphere of harmony, it's possible that the Socialist ministers might forget what party they belong to. That's what must have happened, because if we wake up and read in La Razón the statements made by the acting interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, affirming that "the violence in Catalonia has had more impact than that of the Basque Country" it's enough to make you want to go back to sleep.
What will the relatives of the 800 people murdered in the Basque conflict think of that? Is it acceptable to offend anyone with the slightest intelligence in order to win a handful of votes? Mr Sánchez, don't you have anything to say? The minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska could not have chosen a better day to make one of the most outrageous statements of this pre-campaign. At the very least, it deserves the prize for the lie of the year. The fact is, though, it is so barbarous that, even though false, it is no joking matter, since it is through such expressions that false narratives are constructed. That's how we got the tales of the rebellion and the coup, by installing an informational framework that was repeated over and over again.
It's politics turned into a dunghill, when you can compare one situation with hundreds of deaths to another without anyone who has died and it's all the same. I even heard one of the speakers calling for the return of the spirit of Catalan president Tarradellas from the rostrum of the unionist stage on Passeig de Gràcia. The memory of the former president has been mishandled by all sorts of people but for a protest that featured the presence of the Vox party to appeal to his presidency is far beyond even the political zigzags of the former Catalan leader. Another aspect is that in the midst of the failure of the unionist march in Barcelona, Marlaska ends up covering it up with his words.
I am starting to think that the Socialist strategists in this campaign have completely lost the plot and no longer know if they are moving Franco to the Pardo, going to demonstrations with Vox or asking for the vote of the left. What a mess.