TOGETHER, racism in Catalan
By Gérard Florenson
Junts leaders claim to distance themselves from “Hate speeches” Of the parties that focus their policies on denouncing foreigners, Mainly those considered Muslims, But also Romanians and Latin American, accused of taking advantage of social benefits and refusing to integrate into their host countries. Nevertheless, Both speeches and the concrete policies of Junts contradict these beautiful statements. Marked by a xenophobia that has always been present in the Catalan right (as in the Spanish right), Juns' statements and orientations reinforce an extreme right that can claim to have been right before all.
Together I protect Silvia Orriols
In the Parliament of Catalonia, The leader of Catalan Alliance has returned to launch an odious attack against the deputy of ERC, Najat Driouech, accused of Islamist propaganda for wearing veil. Silvia Orriols of course continued to denounce all Muslims with arguments worthy of Vox and all neo -fascists.
Having won the Ripoll City Council with the greatest number of seats but not with the absolute majority, Silvia Orriols is vulnerable and could have lost his position in case of a motion of censure. But this could not be a majority because of Junts' negative, a strange negative when we know that the other parties represented (ERC, PSC and CUP) They were precisely willing to offer the City Council ... the arguments invoked (Do not allow Catalan Alliance to present itself as a victim) They are not better than the “respect for the will of voters” Getting off by Laura Borras to leave Silvia Orriols the day after the municipal elections.
TOGETHER, well, It is different from the extreme Spanish right than to the extreme right right, Precisely because the latter is Catalan and is proclaimed independence; So it would be a bit part of the family ... there have always been reactionary Catalan currents, nostalgic of medieval past and dominant Catholicism, With a racist vision of the Catalan community, adorned with all the virtues of a higher race. For the defenders of this conception, This idealized Catalonia is threatened by immigrants from other regions (The charnegos) And even more by foreigners, all sent by Spanish governments to destroy Catalan identity.
Even in the ‘30 there was the risk of development of fascist currents with Català status, Decas, The Badia brothers and his militia, the Scatters, put at the service of the Catalan employer against the unionists of the CNT. as we see, If the Catalan alliance has progressed thanks to the resignations of the independence parties, He enrolls in the old tradition of reactionary Catalanism.
Republican and progressive catalanism of the early twentieth century fought this ideology and defended an inclusive vision of the Catalan nation, secular, rejecting any distinction of origin or race. Conversely, Junts shows an obvious complacency towards Silvia Orriols, As if this could limit its competition. At the same time, Junts pursues racism with the argument of not allowing the Catalan alliance to monopolize the speech on the call “Immigration problem”, with the only result of banalizing xenophobia and Islamophobia.
Manage immigration, control immigrants ...
One of the Junts axes is the transfer to the Generalitat of everything related to the arrival and management of immigrants. You could see in it a desire for independence in stages ... unless the omnipresent discourse on the “recurrence” and his expulsion gives a clearly racist tone to this claim. As the Spaniards cannot be expelled, This only affects foreigners, that are in fact indicated as the main offenders, A chase that reinforces the speech of the extreme right, of Vox and the Catalan Alliance. It is not surprising that many of these policies are developed from agreements achieved with the Spanish "progressive" government of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) which Junts holds.
This repressive response to small crimes (These are not serial murderers or large drug traffickers, but of telephone or motorcycle thieves) Forget that throwing people into the street and depriving it of resources can only push on to obtain them by any necessary means. Where crime begins? Don't you have residence permission? Selling junk articles on the street? Disting tourists with their presence alone?
Even worse, If possible, It is the speech on the "distribution of unaccompanied migrants", considered a load or worse, A danger. Reduced to numbers, These minors are not considered or treated as human beings, Your aspirations, Their requests are not heard: There is no big difference with what the president of the Community of Madrid says, Isabel Days Ayuso del PP.
It's about teenagers (Almost always guys) who risked their lives across the sea to find a different future to their life of misery. They left their country, Often loading with the hopes of his family and his community. If this dream future is accessible to them, They will be integrated naturally in Catalonia, Learning your tongue without being forced, How do you learn the language of the country where you want to live. They will be the Catalans of tomorrow.
But capitalism needs to divide people. Catalan businessmen want immigrants to take advantage of cheap and precarious labor, But racist policies serve to keep immigrants in fear and precariousness. It doesn't surprise us that together, The party of businessmen and landowners go in this direction, But for us no political agreement is possible on behalf of the “Catalan unit” with them.
