CUP Offers to Make a Deal with the 'Most Right-wing and Spanish Nationalist PSC in History'

The CUP has surprised with an unexpected offer of dialogue to the PSC to agree on housing measures. This breaks with years of uncompromising rhetoric and marks a change in the strategy of the anti-capitalist party. All of this is in harmony with a problem that, like housing, serves the left as a lifeline.

Laure Vega, a CUP member in Parliament, has stated in an interview for Público that they are willing to sit down with Illa's Govern. "To solve serious social problems like housing," the member clarifies. Shortly after this news, Vega herself hastened to say that the CUP will not be "anyone's crutch," but rather a "lever":

This approach is significant, especially if we remember that it was another CUP member, Laia Estrada, who said that Illa's PSC represented the "most right-wing and Spanishist PSC in history." According to the CUP during President Illa's investiture, the PSC's Govern was a branch of the "Congress" and Moncloa. It was the same discourse that the pro-independence movement launched to react to the end of the pro-independence majority:

The background of this maneuver is twofold. On one hand, the CUP seeks to capitalize on the growing social unrest due to the housing crisis. On the other hand, it aims to reverse the isolation it has been relegated to in recent years following a series of deep electoral failures. The anti-capitalists, ultimately, adhere to the results of their Proceso Garbí to try to resurface once again.

From "No to Everything" to Being a Normal Party

This shift is not limited to Parliament; in fact, if we see it in Parliament, it's because the housing issue offers the CUP a window of opportunity. So far, the anti-capitalists have tested this strategic change in municipal politics. And, in the case of the PSC, the CUP has supported the PSC's municipal budgets in Vilafranca del Penedès and Tortosa.

Similarly, the CUP has toughened its stance on security and registration in the localities where it governs. That is, in Berga and Girona. In these cities, the party shows a more institutional and management-oriented face, to the point of imitating the registration control policy that Orriols has implemented in Ripoll.

In this political recycling operation, housing has become the main discursive axis of the Catalan left. From the Comuns to ERC, everyone has tried to ride the wave of indignation caused by real estate prices. The CUP is no exception and uses this issue as an excuse for its new negotiating role. Meanwhile, and as explained today in E-Notícies, Comuns and CUP infiltrate housing unions.

It is once again confirmed that this legislature in Catalonia has a double face. On one hand, it is the legislature that has to digest post-separatism. On the other hand, it is the legislature of the real estate explosion. The results are already beginning to be seen.