This Thursday, yes, finally. Thanks to the old red and yellow, Ciudadanos has scored the hat-trick of the print front pages of the anti-Spanish government Madrid papers, and also bagged El País, although differently. Inés Arrimadas has (literally) flown the flag for Spain ("neither you, nor your separatist commandos will make this flag disappear from Catalonia") and shot her party back into the headlines.
They'd tried everything this week: proposing banning pro-independence parties, permanently applying article 155 of the Constitution, eliminating Catalan from the civil service, removing powers over Education and Health and, even, on 1st October, put off leaving the Parliament building to ensure they'd come face to face with the demonstrators outside (and some friendly, forewarned TV cameras). None of this, however, managed to beat the magic of the flag, the power of the red and yellow.
Not ratting out Rato
Arrimadas was helped (and greatly so) that the other big story of the day didn't sit that well with El Mundo, ABC, La Razón and their narrative. Obviously, in the throes of the campaign to unseat Pedro Sánchez and his government, it's not ideal to open a front page with the confirmation of the sentence of Rodrigo Rato to four and a half years for the Bankia case and the secret corporate card he enjoyed. Rato was first second deputy PM, then first deputy PM of José María Aznar's government. The story would evoke all those stories of PP corruption and all that... It would be unnecessary. That's all they'd need, now they've managed to present the current Spanish government as a bunch of incompetents and, at the end of the day, just as corrupt as Rajoy's lot. Would you prefer our corruption or theirs?
Rato does turn up on the front pages, true, but is sidelined. Except by El País, that is, which opens with him. A stunt by the head of the opposition in the Catalan Parliament has given an excuse to let Rato get on with packing his suitcase for prison in peace.
The place Arrimada's caper wasn't flagged up, however, was on the front pages of the Catalan press, who listened to the smackdown from Miquel Iceta (PSC) in the Parliament itself, reminding Arrimadas that just behind her was, as always, an "even larger and more beautiful" Spanish flag - one of the moments of the plenary session.
Ciudadanos has won this Thursday's stage of the endless race in Spain but lost it in Catalonia. Which is where, we must remember, Arrimadas has to win her votes. One possible interpretation is that this triumph in Madrid won't do much for them in Catalonia (where it's expected they must want to remain the most voted-for party) whilst in the rest of Spain they only appear to be useful (more useful than the PP at least) for keeping the Spanish flag flying in Barcelona. Exactly the opposite of what they want, which is to help fly the Spanish flag from Madrid. As someone under siege once said: "sound and fury, signifying nothing".
Bonus tracks (2)
Talking about making the front pages, maybe British PM Theresa May could teach us a lesson or two. This Wednesday she took to the stage in Birmingham at the Conservative party conference with Abba providing her walk-on, or indeed "dance-on", music. She had serious things to say, although it might not seem it.
Meanwhile, also in the UK, Barça had a match and a half at Wembley against Tottenham Hotspur. The Catalans will be grateful as the results of the last ten days haven't been quite their cup of tea:
