The resignation of Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy did not become one of the widely discussed news in our media space: at one time, the referendum on the independence of Catalonia and the subsequent confrontation between Madrid and Barcelona was discussed much more actively. Meanwhile, this resignation is a direct consequence of this conflict and at the same time - the end of an entire era in the history of Spain and Europe. Together with Rahoi, the People's Party led by him also withdraws to political oblivion. Judging by sociological surveys, she no longer has the opportunity to return to power and on the right flank is inferior to the young modern populists from the "Citizens". This means that Spain is really becoming another.
Political directories usually refer to the People's Party as center-right, but with approximately the same success the center-right can be called Putin's "United Russia". The main feature of the People's Party is not that its activists hold right-wing views, but that they are direct political heirs of the Franco regime and the only political party of the winners in the civil war - the National Movement, the Phalanx - by the son of the pre-Franco dictator Prima de Rivera. Neofalangists, as expected, were considered liberals and supporters of change in their own party. But in fact they destroyed the possibility of the existence of centrist political forces in Spain, reducing competition to the opposition of the party - heirs of the winners in the war with the party - the heiress of the vanquished, Spanish socialists, whose leader Pedro Sanchez has now become the new prime minister of the country.
Speaking about the economy, the People's Party has always been much more adequate and realistic than the socialists. Speaking of political changes, this party did its utmost to preserve the Franco state framework. In the days of the Catalan crisis, many appealed to the Spanish Constitution, which was violated by the separatists. But very few people understood that this is the Constitution of the Transitional Period, adopted shortly after Franco's death as a transit document. This Constitution should have been replaced for a long time by a new Basic Law reflecting political and social realities, new regional rights, referendum procedures and so on. But the People's Party did its utmost to keep the status quo - and without its participation there could be no constitutional amendments, because there could not be the necessary number of votes. As a result, the transit dragged on for four decades and begins only now.
If the catalan separatism of the twentieth century had a name that could be clearly identified, this name is not Puchemon. Puchemond is one of a series of Catalan politicians, adherents of independence, today one, tomorrow another, the name does not matter much when the idea is shared by most citizens. This name is Rajoy. For the resurrection of their state idea, the Catalans should thank the former prime minister, as well as the Ukrainians - to thank Putin for understanding the true place of his country in the world and the region. Action, as is known, gives rise to resistance.
It was Rahoy who obtained from the Constitutional Court of Spain the repeal of the changes that confirmed the right of the Catalan nation to exist. The very fact that the Spanish nation can unite several nations, that the Catalans - the same nation as the Germans, the French or the Castilians, significantly weakened the positions of the supporters of independent Catalonia. Many Catalans were ready to consider themselves a nation in Spain - and together with those in the province who generally perceived themselves simply as Spaniards or Spanish-Catalans, these people constituted a stable majority. The decision of the Constitutional Court changed the situation. Catalonia simply split into Catalans and non-Catalans (among whom are those Catalans who attribute themselves to the Spaniards). But even in these conditions, at the autonomy elections held after the independence referendum, the Catalans voted for their parties, and the non-Catalans for the Citizens and Socialists. For the Rahoy party in Catalonia, almost no one voted.
Supporters of independence did not accidentally choose Rakhoy's sparring partners. The grandson of the "separatist" (grandfather Rakhoy was one of the authors of the Charter of Galicia in the republic and was deprived of the dictatorship of the right to teach), the leader of the minority government - the prime minister had to show his strength and steepness, unwillingness to talk, readiness to use the police, even sent from Madrid. The head of the party, whose very name became synonymous with official corruption, he demonstratively arrested Catalan politicians - revolutionary fanatics of the idea of ??independence, known for their incorruptibility.
Every day of his tenure was a demonstration of the fact that Catalonia is not Spain. His successor, Sanchez Raha, left behind the ruins of state unity - as once Gorbachev Yeltsin.
However, unlike the Soviet Union, Spain still has a chance to escape. The new prime minister has already announced the readiness of the dialogue with Barcelona and the return to the idea of ??the existence in Spain of separate equal nations. And any dialogue weakens the position of supporters of independent Catalonia.
However, it is unclear whether Sanchez has time. Constitutional reforms require a long-term government and a stable majority. Sanchez does not have neither one nor the other. It relies on the support of the left populists from Podmos and national parties. And in the back of his head right-wing populists from the "Citizens" who have become the most popular party among the supporters of the preservation of Catalonia in Spain and are claiming victory in the parliamentary elections throughout Spain.
The leaders of the "Citizens" do not have the corrupt trail of the Rakhoi party and are convinced of the need to preserve a single country - even if it is necessary to act strictly. And they will be able to level out all the achievements of Sanchez's dialogue - if such achievements are in general. By and large, the supporters of Catalan independence need only wait out the embraces of the socialists familiar to them, but to obtain from them the right to hold a legitimate referendum on the independence of Catalonia.
And the "Citizens", when they come to power, will help them win this referendum.
Original.