The end of the independence movement with a tie
When Artur Mas achieved the necessary majority in Parliament to become president, a leitmotif became fashionable, spread by the Convergent world, according to which this new government—after the two tripartite governments, riddled with facets and scandals—would be the "government of the best." With this, Mas and his followers intended to emphasize, I believe, that, unlike in recent years, what would prevail when composing the executive would be the abilities and merits of those who formed part of it. From the first to the last. There would be no room for mediocre people chosen solely for being part of the party. Needless to say, this announcement of a "government of the best" was the object of ridicule, criticism, and contempt from the opposition. The truth is, however, that Mas took seriously his duty to choose, within his means, the best-prepared candidates for his government, which, unfortunately for the president, was immediately confronted with the economic collapse produced by the Great Depression, which, having begun in 2008, would last for many years.
President Mas had in mind what the profile of the people he would promote from then on should be. He envisioned people with a good education and who had demonstrated solid skills throughout their careers, preferably in the private sector but also in administration and academia. These were generally people accustomed to management and who had a pragmatic approach to politics. In other words, they were ideally suited to getting things done, to taking action, to tackling complex challenges. This doesn't mean, of course, that they lacked an ideology. They did. Now: they weren't people fond of Byzantinism, or of wasting time in endless discussions about every doctrinal subtlety. A good number could be defined as liberals—some leaning more toward social democracy, others with conservative overtones. It was a sector that had progressively joined the independence movement, which, unstoppably and steadily, had continued to grow stronger in the first decade of the century.
These types of men and women were then dubbed by some observers and analysts as "independence supporters in a tie." A handful of these ministers joined Mas's government after he was sworn in in December 2010. The same occurred in the second row, the third row, and beyond. Andreu Mas-Colell, Boi Ruiz, Lluís Recoder, Francesc-Xavier Mena, and Pilar Fernández Bozal are some of the people who made up that Catalan government, still under the acronym CiU.
Most of the Process's adventures and misadventures would follow. Convergència, for its part, would break away from Unió and eventually transform into PDECat, eventually leading to Junts per Catalunya. After October 2017, and with the subsequent frustration and depression in the pro-independence world still lingering, many of those people decided to step back and view politics from a distance. Others remained tied to that political project, knowing that PDECat, much less Junts, weren't Convergència.
Jaume Giró, a distinguished representative of what we have called "independence supporters with ties," became Minister of Economy and Finance in the government between ERC and Junts following the elections at the beginning of 2021. He was succeeded by Pere Aragonès, who became the 132nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Juntos—led by a Carles Puigdemont since Waterloo—had chosen some highly qualified men and women, in line with the desire for "government of the best." A journalist by training, like Puigdemont himself, Giró had held positions of very high responsibility at La Caixa and Repsol, among other large companies. After the government with ERC broke off noisily, Giró remained tied to Junts. He was the most visible and notable figure of that old group of "independence supporters with ties," whose representatives were increasingly fewer. However, a few days ago, Giró finally threw in the towel himself. In his public statement, although he sought a friendly tone, he lamented the marginalization, the practically residual minority position that voices like his and others have been left in within Junts. The former minister writes: "Nor do the orientations coincide with my way of understanding the politics that I believe the country needs and needs today." Jaume Giró has left, and Junts, in turn, has lost a very important voice and type of sensitivity. It also loses plurality and transversality.