The will of a people, by Jorba Rafael

The common factor of the national populisms riding through Europe since the last cycle of economic crisis is the invocation of a ‘demos’ (people) not subject to any counter-power and that collides head-on with the rules of the game of democracies. This abstract ‘demos’ not only collides with representative, liberal and deliberative democracies, but also rejects the separation of powers and advocates strengthening the executive power to give wings to an authoritarian democracy (an oxymoron).

These national populisms, of every sign and flag, they were born from the “perfect storm & rdquor ;, in expression of ‘president’ Montilla, It was unleashed in the autumn of 2008. Two general environmental factors intervened – the magnitude of the crisis and the wave of identity withdrawal that it generated – and a third factor, of a local nature, linked to the agenda of each country. A ‘totum revolutum’ that, at the level of the European Union, is behind phenomena such as Brexit or the current pulse with Poland and Hungary.

The sovereign populisms of the last decade they do not only question the EU legal order, Rather, they call into question the very existence of a constitutional hard core, at the national and European level, which is not subject to the sirens of demagoguery: respect for human rights, freedom of expression, abolition of capital punishment, safeguarding minorities, laws against gender violence and homophobia, separation of powers … The will of an abstract ‘demos’ thus becomes the ‘democratic principle’ that takes precedence over the rules of the game of democracy.

It is a phenomenon that is reproduced in different countries. This is the case of France where the tertullian Éric Zemmour is the fashionable candidate for the 2022 presidential elections. Graduated in Sciences Po and ex-chronicler of ‘Le Figaro’, he advocates “re-legitimizing authority and discipline & rdquor ;,“ civilizing the barbarians & rdquor; and “regenerate democracy”. To do so, forget your academic training and questions the separation of powers: “We have counterpowers that have become power, that is, justice, the media and minorities. We have to remove power from those counterpowers & rdquor ;.

Yes, as we said at the beginning, an abstract ‘demos’ against the rules of the game of democracy itself. It is a common denominator of the national populisms of the last decade. The call Pro-independence ‘process’ It is one of them. Artur Mas participated in the Catalan elections of November 2012 claiming an “exceptional majority & rdquor; and brandishing a slogan: “The will of a people.” His image, with open arms, a sea of ​​’senyeres’ and a ‘estelada’, was the starting gun for the ‘procés’.

The ‘president’ Mas not only failed in his attempt (he lost 12 deputies), but three years later he was sent “to the trash of history & rdquor; by la CUP: voted against his investiture as a Jx Yes candidate in the September 2015 elections and elected Carles Puigdemont ‘in extremis’. However, the logic of that slogan marked the independence roadmap until the events of September and October 2017: the laws of legal transience and the self-determination referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence.

I refer to the texts. In the Resolution on the start of the ‘Procés’, of November 9, 2015, the Parliament wields the “democratic mandate & rdquor; from the polls, “Bet on the opening of a non-subordinate constituent process & rdquor; and “urges the future government to comply exclusively with the rules or mandates issued by this Chamber & rdquor ;. In July 2016, in the Conclusions of the ‘Procés’ Study Commission, it is specified that the decisions of the ‘Assemblea Constituent’ “will be binding for the rest of the political powers and for all natural and legal persons & rdquor ;.

“None of the decisions of the ‘Assemblea’ will not be subject to control, suspension or challenge by any other power, court or tribunal & rdquor ;, it is added. That is to say, the Catalan Republic was constituted as a ‘popular democracy’, without counterpowers, neither inside doors nor outside doors; not in Europe either. All a sign of the illiberal character of the new regime that it proposed to build, in tune with the drifts of national populism on the scene.

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