On Tuesday night, while I was at the progamme Més 3/24 with journalist Xavier Grasset and we were commenting on the news, as reported by El Nacional, that the Catalan government was considering closing bars and restaurants for two weeks, I received the following message from an unequivocally pro-independence restaurateur: "What they are going to do to us is a political decision. They're going to ruin us, but it is a political decision. As such, it will have a political response on February 14th." The restaurant owner, like the vast majority of those in the sector, had done his homework after the first lockdown in spring and did not understand the Catalan executive's measures, which he considered unrealistic in terms of stopping the expansion of the pandemic. “Why, for example, didn't they decide to allow lunches, which are at a time when mobility will still be very high, and to restrict evening meals?” he asked me. Some of my explanations were useless, as the truth is that I had answers for everything except the severity of the government's measures. Hence the irritation.
Hours later, the president of the French Republic announced from the Élysée palace that he was decreeing a curfew for Paris and the country's eight largest metropolitan areas from 9pm to 6am for at least four weeks. Police will patrol the streets to ensure that within these hours everything remains closed and you won't be able to go to parties at friends' houses in defiance of the ban. Upon hearing the news, the first thing I did was compare the data on the evolution of the pandemic in the French capital and in Catalonia. Paris reported a level of 320.9 positive Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people on Wednesday, while in the Barcelonès county, for example, the index is 431.1 and the Catalan average is 262. Paris is in better shape and yet applying more drastic measures. Madrid, on the other hand, with much more worrying data, opposes the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish government after the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, resisted all strong restrictive measures, arguing that the economy could not bear it.
In this battle between two models, the need to take stronger action is supported by "published" opinion but Ayuso seems to have won over public opinion. Polls, in fact, give her a rising trend in votes if elections were held now in the Community of Madrid. It is likely that my hospitality sector friend, at present, in this confusion of looming economic difficulties, is closer to Ayuso even though he deplores the Popular Party and has broken off his connections with it. If the Catalan government gave better explanations for its actions, would that be enough? I don’t think so, because it's not something fed by speeches and by now everyone has an opinion and feels like they govern. But the truth is that there is no magic wand - and the financial aid that might be offered will always be insufficient no matter how hard you try, even to dig up resources that you can redirect - and the mood shifts depending on how close people see the pandemic to their family circle.
The Catalan government now wants at all costs to save the Christmas campaign and believes that now is the time to take measures which are more unpopular than they might seem, in view of the reaction this Wednesday from so many affected sectors. And this, even before the judiciary has given its view and it should not be ruled out that the courts will reverse the measures that the Catalan executive wants to implement. If that comes to pass, it will have paid a very high price in attrition for very little result.