At the start of 2007, Sean O'Callaghan lectured at Birkbeck College, University of London. A decade ago he had published 'The informer: the true life story of one man's war on terrorism', the memoirs of his time in the IRA, first as a paramilitary and then as an informer for the Irish government with the mission of making the plans of the terrorist organization.


O'Callaghan explained that what had made him go from encouraging violence to wanting to help eliminate it in order to get out of the sectarian madness in which he was immersed was to have stopped looking at his opponents as 'the others' to come to see them not as a uniform mass but as individualized people. An exercise that seems very simple but putting it into practice is very complicated.



What happened in the years of the Northern Irish Troubles is not at all comparable to the current Catalan case, but O'Callaghan's example illustrates well where a conflict leads and the difficulties in getting out of it or, just , to co-exist as the exchange is wrapped up and the opponent ceases to be a concrete name to become the representation of all possible abject qualities.


In Catalonia, two irreconcilable blocs have been forming for months - political leaders and speakers are working to make it so - the independenceist and the constitutionalist / unionist / "of 155". In each of them there are parties, as is the case of Citizens, with such an extreme discourse that even after winning the elections they are unable to articulate parliamentary majorities to govern. In return, anger at this inability to forge alliances (never assumed as one's own) contributes to further radicalizing their approaches.


When a party limits itself to seeking agreements only with those it conceives as similar, it enters into a competitive dynamic with the formations of its environment in order to demonstrate to shared potential voters that only its members are worthy of the ideal it defends and that outside there is nothing but the wastes of Mordor.


To survive, Catalanism must find the people and the way to move forward together

A formation with points of contact with other parties that it does not initially consider to be on its side, such as ERC with the commons and the PSC, in the competition within the bloc always has the losers. Or those of winning, but only if he radicalizes his speech more and more. It is clear, then, that what suits a party with extreme positions, without border points outside the bloc, is to campaign constantly so that members of ideal sister formations do not dare to talk to 'the others' because it is only within the block that hard training can beat.


If the border formations enter this game, each of the blocs generates an internal discursive escalation that makes, day after day, the possibility of finding points of communion with 'the others' less. You don't need to have knowledge of history or political science, just common sense, to understand that this dynamic does not allow a solution to the conflict in terms of agreement.


For any member of a formation on one side or the other, the most comfortable thing is to repeat empty slogans, adopt a firm stance and double bets. In this, even if in appearance one is very strident, there is no cost, it is the safest and to do it you do not need to spend gray matter. The risk but also the possibility of a solution, on the other hand, is to be found in looking for points of understanding with 'the others' - without this implying giving up one's own final objective.


It is no secret that very complex days are coming, especially depending on the outcome of the Spanish elections and the Supreme Court ruling. However, in order to survive, Catalanism must find the people and the way to move forward together. Its current majority today, independence, cannot do without reaching agreements and governing – the municipal sphere can be a good ground to explore this – with the non-independence Catalanism of the commons and the PSC. Like these formations, especially socialism, they will hardly be able to strengthen Catalonia's self-government with pacts with non-Catalanist parties.


Border parties need to forget about blogs and take chances, brave the downpour, meet, talk, get out of meetings and throw a few rants, but get back to the table. Understand that to a greater or lesser extent everyone has made mistakes, that they will make more mistakes and that a few are already paying dearly for it. This is the most difficult path, but only the intransigence in their position of those who are willing to compromise, to stop seeing, like O'Callaghan, 'the others' as a uniform whole will get Catalonia to maintain and expand (as far as ) self-government.


Otherwise, it will be easier for an international agent to arrive in a few years to impose a consociational-style government solution like the current Northern Ireland Assembly - designed for divided societies and based on proportionality of representation of the different groups or blocs, with vetoes and the requirement of qualified majorities to develop policies – rather than to contribute to holding an agreed consultation.