The leader of Ciutadans, Inés Arrimadas, this Sunday evening enjoyed an hour of time on TV3 (the Catalan public broadcaster), during prime time, in her position as leader of the opposition in the Parliament of Catalonia. Her interview with the channel's director, Vicent Sanchis, was, in practice, an impossible interview since the politician took it more like a debate or a duel with an antagonist than an opportunity to present proposals. And it was boring.
Her rhetoric was pitiful, repetitive, well-known and too predictable. Addressed, above all, to her side and actively ignoring the chance to trying to convince potential voters. Her anticipated and advertised attack against TV3 came in the second half of the programme. Nothing new there either, beyond making the same-old criticisms whilst on the public TV channel itself. Arrimadas used a conventional Ciudadanos strategy during her remarks: the continued use of coarse phrases to make her rhetoric seem more plausible ("the independence movement has committed hundreds of violent acts", "there's a great social rupture in Catalonia", "hundreds, thousands of companies have left Catalonia"). And one that's priceless: "Not everything is worth it to win elections".
Lacking specific proposals with any depth and shots against president Torra, the final part of the interview was the most juicy. And the part she had prepared the best. TV3 is a pro-independence machine, it lies a lot and its reports aren't based on reality. That, repeated time and again, trying to convince viewers that the great lie is to describe as exiles the members of the Catalan government today out of their country and whom the justice systems of other countries have refused extradition for. Exiles? Not for her. An "exiliat", exile, is defined in Catalan as: "whoever lives outside their homeland voluntarily or by force". It seems clear that, yes, they are exiles.
TV3 has become Ciutadans' bête noire, despite its debate programmes being full of talking heads sympathetic to the party, party members and even leaders. On 7th September, on the programme Els matins, Albert Rivera attacked the Catalan public channel, which he branded a "device for separatist propaganda" and mendacious, accusing it of "manipulating every day". More recently, Arrimadas herself took a shot at the satirical programme Polònia, directed by the journalist Toni Soler, and said that he humiliates Spanish speakers.
In short, pitiful rhetoric and an Arrimadas-Sanchis duel to forget if it weren't for the scorn Ciutadans' leader showed for Catalan public television.