The transformational left of Pablo Iglesias and Podemos, which backed the holding of a referendum on independence in Catalonia before 2017 and then, seeing how the Spanish state was wearing the party down, decided to acclimatize to the general atmosphere of a uniform Spain, has gradually disappeared from the map, as the wall-to-wall carpet of this territorial policy undermined principles and offered a comfortable landing space to leaders and activists in the organization. We have seen as much in recent days with the battle of Barcelona, where Ada Colau offered her votes in a deal with the People's Party (PP) in order to retain dozens of salaries at the town hall.
It has really been quite a lesson. The stressed seams of the political narrative versus the peace of mind of having an entire army of council staff with few qualifications but in important positions. No wonder they had to invent a new political device to confuse people. A facelift operation that responds to the name of Sumar and that preaches vague policies through a superficial discourse that aims to be to the left of the Spanish Socialists (PSOE), but listening to them you don't really know who is to the left of whom, or if indeed the smaller one is just the generic brand of the bigger one.
This Sunday, the Sumar leader, Yolanda Díaz, was in Cornellà, the Baix Llobregat city that has been a Catalan Socialist (PSC) fiefdom forever and is the place where party stalwarts like José Montilla and Antoni Balmón got started. Díaz spoke of the PP and Vox and presented them as the coalition of no for Catalonia. And, it is true, that they are. But the Socialists have already been saying that. Díaz has not given any hint that would allow her to be added to the coalition of yes for Catalonia and with her saccharine statements on the matter it cannot even be said that she has satisfied her own.
Of course, she did not go off-script on the issue of the independence referendum that Podemos had previously backed in its programme, which the Comuns, as Catalan participants in the Sumar platform, want to keep, and she tries to avoid it as if it were a local issue that does not affect a party of Spanish scope. Thus, she passed through Cornellà talking a lot about the Spain of the PP and Vox and not much about the Catalonia that she wants or defends. Of course, there were many sugary phrases about "a common heritage", "cultural diversity", "a plural project because we are diverse" and the good luck of being able to "speak in Catalan, Galician and Basque". That was all, which is a way of saying that it was nothing. The void as a political discourse.
The ban on Irene Montero is not the most serious problem. It is what it represents: a return to the worst past of the left, which has nothing to offer. Because if they are dressing as the PSOE, the original will always be better than the copy.