At the heart of the independence movement was the desire to relegate identity-based and victim-blaming nationalism—in other words, the worst face of Pujolism, the Ferrussola face—to the background. The key contribution in this regard, from the intellectual sphere, came from the philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventós, with his work From identity to independence, from 1999, a decade before the start of the Process. That book had a foreword by his friend Pasqual Maragall, who still declared himself a federalist. Over the years, Rubert de Ventós's essay would end up leading Maragallism and part of the PSC to pro-sovereignty positions.
Today, a quarter of a century later, Catalan nationalism is once again showing its identity-driven impulse, with the feverish outgrowth of Aliança Catalana, which is conditioning the discourse of Junts. We have returned to our worst version. What would the philosopher say, who believed that we had already "freed ourselves from the burden of identity, nostalgia, and whining"? He advocated for the creation of a state on republican terms, so that we could be citizens with all the consequences and with all the layers of identity we desired.
He did not deny the human phenomenon of identity, but he gave it a sensitive openness. He said: "All monographic identity is a danger. Look, I have a family, religious, sexual, ethnic, national identity... I am a neighbor, a father, a man, a parishioner, a teacher. I belong to a social class, a belief system, a club, a state. Some of these groups have been given to me; others, different ones." in the soukto another only I belong, in another believe, in others I am a soldier or perhaps just the votesThe political task of the future, for me, is to organize a society that does not deny, but rather integrates, this complex intimacy by articulating the diversity of its components.”
In political terms, he wanted Catalonia to cease being an UNOP (Unidentified Political Object) in Europe: he had been a Socialist member of parliament in Brussels. He also wanted to end the unhealthy Catalonia-Spain relationship, resentful on one side and arrogant on the other, which brought out the worst in each: “It reinforces all the ugliness I have inside me.” "I don't want to have those feelings." Seductive in his fragility and intelligence, with his insecure demeanor and the warmth of his gestures, he knew how to generate empathy: without renouncing his own complex identity, welcoming elegance was his ethic. Xenophobic, incompetent, and a jack-of-all-trades, this time with a shared Islamophobic component and with global Trumpism blowing in his favor. The Alliance and Vox-PP feed off each other and complement one another. As Francesc-Marc Álvaro said the other dayOrriols is betraying the essence of 150 years of Catalanism, a movement marked by the will for inclusion, by the idea of a single people, by its integrative capacity. A civic movement that, during the independence process, gave rise to initiatives like Súmate to reinforce the idea that everyone was welcome. This doesn't change the fact that the most reactionary elements of Spanish nationalism (then Ciudadanos) accused it of being exclusionary. But thanks to Rubert de Ventós and others—Carod-Rovira had also influenced the discourse of ERC—the pro-independence movement had rid itself of the reductionist identity-based impulse.
Negotiating in Madrid and Barcelona? What did our man from the realpolitik"I was never one of the '68 generation, who said, 'Demand the impossible.' No, no, having balls is demanding the possible. That's what's difficult, not demanding the impossible," Rubert said, trying to dismiss the Peter Pan mentality that often tries to influence us, the political infantilism of identifying enemies and fighting amongst ourselves.
