It is, to say the least, striking. On the same day that a CIS poll has suggested the likely disappearance of the Ciudadanos (Cs) party, in the electoral cycle that will begin on February 13th with the elections in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla y León, the party is the driving force behind a couple of the most talked-about current news stories. The withdrawal of the seat of the CUP deputy Pau Juvillà and the offer by Pedro Sánchez to Cs leader Inés Arrimadas to complete a parliamentary majority in the Congress of Deputies that will allow the Spanish government's labour reform to go ahead, reflect the extent to which political corpses can be revived when required and how even their past policies can end up having much more influence than whatever their current manifesto states. The decision of the Central Electoral Commission to withdraw Juvillà's seat as a Catalan MP for disobedience and without a final ruling having been given by the Catalan High Court - a matter dating back to when the parliamentarian was a Lleida city councillor and refused to remove some yellow ribbons from the window of his party's office in the council building - is undoubtedly a serious action that fully constitutes interference with the functioning of democracy.
It is not just a question of the fact that the not-yet-final ruling by the court is legally disproportionate and, from a more political point of view, scarcely acceptable. It repeats what president Quim Torra already experienced for the banner hung from the Palau de la Generalitat and which suddenly ended his presidency, also by decision of the courts. It would be worthwhile to know how far the CUP, the Parliament and the government want to go in support of Juvillà or if the path will end up being the same and lead directly to the exit door. Knowing whether there will be a response to the unstoppable repression is no small matter, as there many who have faced state retaliation or have legal cases still pending. This Thursday has been the day of statements of solidarity with Juvillà by those in the pro-independence space, but this solidarity ends up being, in practice, as heartfelt as it is ineffective.
The only thing certain is that the politics of confrontation that Ciudadanos led went as far as persecuting politicians for hanging out yellow ribbons, something which must be truly without precedents in the democratic western world. This idiocy forms part of the unpaid bill that Cs has left behind on its journey to extinction. That is why it would be worthwhile to know how far one can go in the face of such a glaring and at the same time worrying aggression as for a seat granted by the voters to be withdrawn by the Central Electoral Commission and the judiciary. A measure that could be understood in a serious case, but is difficult when it can be interpreted as arbitrary and political.
Those of Inés Arrimadas's party, who certainly enjoy media coverage if they enjoy anything, had a second piece of good news with Pedro Sánchez's invitation to dance and thus to get through his labour reform, something which, at present, the Spanish government's usual allies in the ERC and EH Bildu do not support. It is always difficult to know if the Sánchez executive is threatening to rely on Ciudadanos or throw a warning to its parliamentary partners to let them know that it can do without them. Knowing the prime minister, it is very likely that he will play both games and as for what ends up coming out, a cat or a mouse, we will just have to wait and see. Really, you need a manual to understand the moves the PSOE-Unidas Podemos government is making with its mini labour reform.
Perhaps this sums it all up perfectly: a minister from the left-wing Unidas Podemos wants to carry through the reform with the support of the major CEOE business association, while the conservative PP rejects it, as leftish ERC and Bildu also do, at which point Ciudadanos comes through to vote for the Socialists of the PSOE. Goodness gracious, a labour reform that looks to the left can't really be that staunch, even if the person at the forefront of the negotiation might be. The thing is, politics has always made strange bedfellows, but now, it seems, more than ever. Could it be that ideologies, which have marked so many other moments in history, are even deader than Ciudadanos?