The Bípex-35 and catalano-dependence

AZNAR STRIPPED AWAY THE STIGMA from latent catalano-phobia and turned it into electoral business. You become insignificant in Catalonia but, in return, you win elections in Spain. It was so effective that the catalano-phobes in the PSOE decided to play along, and to see who could come up with the worst nonsense to lure patriotic voters. And here we are.

Now it's clear that catalano-phobia has turned into catalano-dependence. This is not only the perennial economic dependence from fiscal imbalances. It's also in the discourse. In the same way that at many times Catalanism has been and could still be hispano-dependent in the sense of living off the refrain "Madrid is always to blame", this Spanish bipartisan way of thinking, which is so well sponsored that it should be called the Bípex-35 (1), feeds especially off of the "Ooh, what those Catalans said! Watch out for the Catalans". This is so much the case that saving Spain from Catalan delusions is the main electoral argument, and is what is preventing an agreement over the formation of a new government. And it is the only banner that the saviors of the PSOE raise when what they really want is to save Rajoy, because now it's more important to save Spain, and socialism can wait.

Boomerang effects are terrible in politics, and Rajoy is the perfect example, with the regrettable photo of him posing with cardboard boxes containing signatures collected by the PP against the Catalan Statute a few years ago, which resolved a one-time headache and left in its place an irreversible and incurable migraine.

I find it very sad for the Spanish public that the two main parties of the Bípex-35, incapable of governing, of resolving day-to-day issues, of having a project, must live exclusively off the "Watch out for the Catalans!" Dependence is always dramatic. And while Spain's story needs Catalonia both as an alibi for everything and as a perpetual excuse, it will not be their own story nor is there any future in it, as we are seeing now with a government eternally in limbo and an opposition that is opposing itself, above all.

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N.T. This alludes, tongue-in-cheek, to the Ibex-35, Madrid’s main stock exchange index comprising the largest companies in Spain, presumably with a vested interested in preserving the status quo.