Since the essence of politics is located, without a doubt, in the gestures, the correct level of importance has to be attributed to "the new stage of normalization", to use the language of Pedro Sánchez, and that, for now, consists of the fact that the new Spanish government ministers display a certain disdain, if not outright contempt, when they talk about the Catalan question and the positions defended by the independence movement.
The latest has been the minister in charge of the prime minister's department, the new strongman of the cabinet, Félix Bolaños, who has asserted that the independence process is coming to an end, that Catalonia has to overcome its identity-based phase, "on which we will clearly not reach agreement", hammering it home with the phrase that the Spanish unionists like best: we must address the "problems" of the Catalans. The public administration minister, Isabel Rodríguez, as well as asking if the pro-independence activists had learned "their lesson", defined the issue this week using similar terms: talk about the things that matter, she said.
I have affirmed for a long time that Pedro Sánchez knows very well what he is playing at. He is a trickster and recognized as such by everyone but he doesn't usually make mistakes when it comes to favouring his own short-term interests. And he is the farthest thing from a statesman. They imposed taxes on him in Europe and he sold them as a humanitarian gesture, that of a great ruler, when what he hopes to do is secure parliamentary support for his minority government until the end of the legislature. The repression against the Catalan independence movement continues - the Court of Accounts exemplifies it best at present - while in Europe he propagates the idea that the Catalan conflict is already being resolved and that dialogue with its government is working. He says 'no' to all the proposals - amnesty, referendum and self-determination - and that, in spite of the many who continue to have a dreamy attitude, they will, in the end, come around.
The case of the Court of Accounts is especially outrageous for several reasons. It is a political body, which is carrying out a political action, which lacks a basis to support its accusations of misuse of funds in the Catalan government's foreign policy action between 2010 and 2017. The bond figure of 5.4 million euros is calculated to ruin the 34 government ministers and senior civil servants, and the obstacles it has put in the path from the outset in denying a one-month extension for payment show that the intention of making an example of the defendants prevails over everything else. The Catalan government has, when the deadline of midnight Wednesday was almost upon it, used the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) to guarantee, on a transitory basis, the required sum after the refusal of financial institutions to take it on. We'll see what the Court of Accounts' response is.
In the relations between the governments of Spain and Catalonia, the day-to-day is a minefield, with two positions relative to the conflict that are clearly antagonistic. However, the situation is that, in this minefield where the game is being played, one participant is comfortably seated in the shade without facing any risks and able to watch movements, while the pro-independence forces are those trying to cross it and leaving behind something as they do so, something more than the people facing retaliation. The politics of promises versus the politics of results.