“Spain is a multinational state.
(...) Catalonia is indeed a nationality of the Spanish State, like any other autonomous community».
Elías Bendodo
's words
in the interview published yesterday in this newspaper caused the surprise and
bewilderment of many center-right voters
by introducing the concept of a plurinational state into his speech.
It is not for less.
With the aforementioned declaration, the new general coordinator of the PP tried to support -and expand- the strategy that its president
e, Núñez Feijóo, presented a few weeks ago at the Círculo de Economía in Barcelona to seek to reconnect with Catalonia a party that in recent years has not been able to fit in.
But the way to it
it cannot be to assume the language of nationalism
.
Because language is never innocent, because words must be carefully measured and because the PP project cannot take any other path than defending the equality of all Spaniards.
No distinctions.
That is why we welcome the fact that Bendodo himself clarified yesterday afternoon a response that was originally sticky,
address as normal the oxymoron of the plurinationality of a nation of indivisible equals
.
“Spain is an indissoluble nation of 17 autonomies with their own identities.
The differences of each CCAA can be respected and a unique Spain defended », he corrected himself, after receiving the scope of his mistaken statements about diversity.
The fathers of the Constitution naively introduced the ambiguous concept of
nationality
to try to favor the integration of nationalisms in democracy.
But
nationalisms have used this ambiguity
and the absence of a development in the articles that would delimit it in order, with a flagrant disloyalty towards the constitutional text, to advance in new claims.
Disruptive claims and, by extension, discriminatory with the rest of Spaniards, which reached their peak in the
call and celebration of the illegal referendum of 1-O.
Falling into the linguistic framework of independence means accepting this manipulation of those who violate our legal system and social coexistence on a daily basis.
The popular support that the PP seeks in Catalonia will not find it there, no matter how much it wants to dress it in moderation.
Because
one thing is moderation and another is evidence that neutrality is not an option
.
That is the possible trick that the PSOE has played in recent decades and that has ended up separating it from constitutionalism in Catalonia.
The way to confront sovereignism is to stand firm, also in the linguistic battle.
That Ciudadanos understood it perfectly, which in 2017 became proof that the Catalan social majority feels Catalan and Spanish.
His subsequent failures were others.
We hope that Bendodo's error will be quickly corrected and that
do not assume a change of strategy that would be suicidal
Without a doubt, for his party, but above all for constitutionalism as a whole.
He urges Feijóo's PP to make a coherent speech with his project of equality and respect for the Spanish nation.
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