The atavistic Spain-Catalonia conflict consists of the fact that Catalonia is attributed a Spanish identity of varying intensity, which Spain decides based on its interests and the political mood of each historical moment, with which it regulates periods of greater rights and stages of greater obligations, always with the strictest vigilance to ensure that Catalonia does not get out of hand.
The claim for the Sijena paintings is part of a moment of nationalist offensive, that of Aznar's absolute majority in 2000, in which the mourning and penitence of the Spanish right, heir to the Franco dictatorship, are considered over and the phase of nationalist complex begins, losing them in Catalonia. This is the period in which the alliance between the Spanish right and the Spanish episcopate is renewed, which manages to adjust the boundaries of the bishopric of Lleida to make them coincide with those of the province, which gives more strength to the demand for the return of objects from the parishes of the Franja exhibited in the Diocesan Museum of the Generalitat and the paintings from the 1936 room and preserved in the MNAC.
All these episodes occur long before the Trial, October 1st, and the prisons and exiles. The reason is clear: it doesn't matter whether Catalonia leaves or returns (an expression that presents the historical dynamic as if Catalonia were the prodigal son returning to his father's house after a turbulent period), because it is Spain that always returns.
