Morera speaks up for Catalonia

Be it about the victory of Bolsonaro in Brazil or the delivery of mail bombs to Democrats by a partisan terrorist in the US, the public debate is once again alive with questions of who is to blame for the rise of the extreme right. Does it fall at the door of right-leaning parties, who in a bid to gain votes, carelessly insert extremist soundbites in their discourse? Or is it down to the failure of leftwing parties to come together, to push back against such divisive vitriol? There is a grain of truth to both theories in recent history in Valencia. On the one hand, a right wing which took advantage of a number of minority fanatic groups , whipped up by conspiracy theories and anti-scientific arguments: from the supposed 20th century Catalan invasion, a “creative” philology which split Valencian language from Catalan, to a shameless re-writing of history. On the other hand, a centre-left bloc, who believed this was nonsense which would gain no traction, and remained silent, to avoid confrontation with radicals who found cover within the elites. Fortunately, this is now water under the bridge, though it has not been gone long. Enric Morera, Speaker of the Corts Valencianes, is a courageous voice, who has stuck up for Catalan political prisoners and invited his Catalan opposite number Torrent, with all the conviviality required of representatives of two sibling peoples. The PP and Ciudadanos should be ashamed for dredging up these arguments of previous decades. We know how this will play out if they are not stopped.