There have to be many ways to explain what happened this Thursday in the Parliament of Catalonia, and the clash between Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra over the the delegation of the votes of president Puigdemont, exiled in Brussels, and the deputies of his parliamentary group imprisoned in Lledoners: Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull. There also must be many ways to explain the dispute between the pro-independence and the pro-union parties, the latter always prepared to cut back the Parliament's decision-making ability on those areas which are its responsibility, however much judge Llarena wants to interpret the chamber's rules to his liking. There must be many ways to explain the role of the Parliament's lawyers and whether there's any legal jeopardy for the members of the Board or not. And there must be many ways to explain why the pro-independence majority has spent months playing cat and mouse over a question on which their positions have been irreconcilable since the trust between the two groups broke on 30th January, when the investiture debate for Carles Puigdemont was postponed.
But none of these technical and political explanations are really that important for the reader because they don't clarify or answer the mother of all questions: Is the pro-independence majority prepared to end the legislature and go to a new election? Or this other one: Is president Quim Torra going to call an election of his own accord? Or this last one: Is the Catalan government going to break up and leave Junts per Catalunya in a minority like Pedro Sánchez in Madrid? And as politics is the game of interests I can only answer no to each of the three questions. Among other reasons, because with the current spectacle it's unlikely they would be better off in the Parliament and the only options that could be considered would be ending up the same or worse off. And that, with next year's municipal elections just coming into view on the horizon, is very unpromising.
Night had already fallen and, after several hours of the plenary session being paralysed, which allowed for the independence movement to show its wounds in public, the session (the third of the general policy debate) was postponed until next week. Due to differences that some believe are insurmountable and others merely technical. Really, it's not the best image a supposed parliamentary majority can offer. And it runs the risk that all these intraparty minutiae could prove just so draining for the pro-independence base that the people will end up deciding that a public apology is insufficient and that the best thing is for them to go think things through in a corner. Since, without a doubt, they have a lot of work to do. All of them.