Politics, like life, is full of paradoxes. One of them came this Sunday when any minimally-informed Catalan could have gone into shock after reading about former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero encouraging his successor Pedro Sánchez to delve into dialogue with Catalan independence supporters. Moreover, Zapatero was blunt when he said that the Catalan political leaders currently in prison or exile were not coup plotters.
It's notable that it was Zapatero, the prime minister who went back on all his commitments when he reached the Moncloa government palace and above all who said in Barcelona in 2006 that he would support the new Statute of Autonomy that the Parliament of Catalonia would approve. It's from that Statute, trimmed back by the Spanish legislature in 2006 and, later, crushed by the Constitutional Court in 2010, that some of the problems in the relationship between Catalonia and Spain stem. At both times, 2006 and 2010, Zapatero was the prime minister and did nothing to reverse the situation. Rather, he let Alfonso Guerra as chair of the Congress's Constitutional Commission to air in thuggish tone that he was "planing down" the Statute. All that to the jubilation of his own side.
Certainly, it's easier to be a former prime minister than a prime minister. There are starting to be many examples: Felipe González, José María Aznar and Zapatero himself. It's easier to hand out advice and give speeches than to govern. Zapatero made many mistakes and broke many promises. But, that said, his boldness in these moments and his encouragement for Pedro Sánchez to negotiate should be welcome, negotiations that he has held in dribs and drabs so far and to no effect. González and Aznar don't think the same, the first supporting a tough line with Catalonia and the second a very tough line.
Changing the current situation in Catalonia depends on the prime minister. He won't do so whilst he continues to think that the only possible political narrative is that promoted by PP, Cs and Vox. He needs courage, something he hasn't shown for many months.