"We have lacked a generation that would fill the estelada with meaning"

BarcelonaFour voices separated by little more than four years –two political scientists aged 24 and 22, a 23-year-old nurse, and a 26-year-old psychologist– were teenagers when they lived through the 'Procés'. Now, in perspective, they debate it based on five photographs that they reveal during a discussion on the ARA set: the coexistence of flags, the pro-independence demonstrations of September 11th, the role of Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, the presidency of Salvador Illa, and the legacy of former president Jordi Pujol. The journey outlines the evolution of a movement that today, nine years after October 1st, is torn between nostalgia and the search for a new narrative.

The first photograph, with three friends and three different flags –the estelada, the senyera, and the Spanish flag [on which one can read “voting = democracy”]–, opens the debate with two words: concord and diversity. Joel Bas, a 24-year-old political scientist, sees in it "one of the greatest acts of transversality in the history of Europe" and claims the right to decide as a “precondition for any concord between the citizens of Catalonia". Maties Obiols, also a 22-year-old political scientist, finds in it the portrait of a "very conflictive and very traumatic" moment, and raises a doubt that will accompany the conversation throughout: "I don't know if independence is the only way or the most beneficial one to defend Catalonia”. He explains that “the fit [within Spain] should be different, perhaps federal”.

The question generates a brief silence before Bas responds bluntly: "It doesn't seem like the only one to me, but it does seem like the best one". Èric Arenas, a 26-year-old psychologist, adds an identity-based reading: the photograph demonstrates that "independence, in its own essence, accepts difference", while the Spanish state "cannot be conceived without the Catalan conflict". Picking up on Obiols' question, he goes further and ironizes: "God did not create Spain, and I am sorry if anyone thought so". He argues that there is no need to "denature the idea of independence" and that any territory in the world "could have to think about its own independence". Clara Capdevila, a 23-year-old nurse, closes the block by adding that "active listening is necessary" and asks that the Spanish state "does not reject us just for thinking differently".

The second image, that of a massive Diada, is the one Capdevila brings up first. With a sincere smile, he explains that it reminds him of "a great moment when people went out into the streets a lot," something that "no longer happens" now. His nostalgia opens the debate on why the demonstrations have been emptying out since 2017. Obiols poses the question and Bas responds with his own chronology: the euphoria started in 2012 and remained "effervescent" until the first decline in 2019 and the final blow of the pandemic, when "the expectations of reaching independence moved further away." The key, he says, is to regain "that hegemony" and "the narrative" to "grow again and be a majority." Arenas adds a underlying thesis: for him, the problem "is the time without movement" and he argues that there has been a lack of "a generation that fills the estelada with meaning every day, and not just on September 11th." He states that the maximum mobilization to aspire to "is not the day of the demonstration, but the day after, the day-to-day."

Obiols turns the third photograph, and in front of the portrait of Puigdemont and Junqueras, the tone becomes more emotional. Arenas recalls that in 2017 he did not consider "which party each member of the government belonged to": "It was my government, they were my leaders". For him, "independence in itself is a transversal movement". Bas vindicates their "resistance" –"They decided to go to prison and into exile to continue fighting"– but also criticizes the internal battles of the independence movement and the rise of Aliança Catalana, which he attributes in large part to Junts' discourse. Obiols wonders if it would not be convenient to "have younger leaders and new blood" at the helm. Capdevila disagrees: it is not about, he says, being "younger or older". Arenas puts the final point on it: "There are no eternal leaderships", although he maintains that Puigdemont and Junqueras "must continue to have a relevant role" because "they are the ones who know the mistakes that were made". Bas closes it with a parallelism: "You will never bathe in the same river".

With Salvador Illa's photograph comes the turn towards the present. Bas's ironic reaction, which opens the image —"Not so bad, not so bad"—, gives way to a harsher diagnosis: the new cycle, he says, has brought "a loss of the pro-independence majority" and an image of normality that hides a "well-latent" conflict. For him, the image "means limitation, it means autonomism: not having the country's tools to manage the challenges of the 21st century". Obiols adds that Illa "is trying to play the part" but does not know if he has achieved "everything he promised" –"Honestly, no", he admits–, while Arenas attacks the Government: "Catalonia does not need an agency, just a good government that understands its civil society". Bas summarizes it: "A government that governs and a president with more presidential timber", because "the great leaderships are already far behind".

This longing for great leadership leads them to the final image, that of former president Jordi Pujol, who closes the debate with a look at the past that is also intended to be a lesson for the future. Arenas vindicates the legacy of "finding ourselves in a shared space from within our own differences," warning that looking back "from nostalgia" will only lead to searching for "a Catalonia that surely never existed." Bas adds the chapter of alleged corruption: "Every political representative of Catalonia must have an irreproachable record." Obiols agrees: the legal cases "stain" the Pujolist legacy. Clara Capdevila closes the debate with a more balanced assessment: she considers him "a very important president for Catalonia" who fought "for a more autonomous Catalonia" and to recover "the normality of the Catalan language," but also warns that "talking about Pujol leads to talking about the alleged corruption," a part that "must not be set aside."