“What is good for Barcelona is good for Catalonia, and what is good for Catalonia is good for Spain”. This transitive formula summarized the political thought of Pasqual Maragall and his party, in the years of the so-called Olympic spirit. Unity of action, mutual benefit. Catalonia is Spain on the condition that Spain is Catalonia. Shared passion thanks to sporting success. Els segadors and the Royal March playing consecutively when the Bourbon king enters a stadium with a republican name. It is an approach that connects with the federal tradition. A double antidote against assimilationism and against independence. And an alternative to the Pujolist project, which was to make of Catalonia, little by little –as if nothing– a kind of pseudo-state.But the Olympic success passed, and the dreams of Maragall and Pujol proved impossible. Maragall, as president, saw how his Catalan Spain became a mirage. And the failed reform of the Statute made it clear that Catalonia could not achieve real political power without posing a direct challenge to the State. The emotional distance between Catalonia and Spain was not only expressed in the rise of sovereignty, but also in the laments of the PSC: Montilla spoke of “disaffection”, and Maragall himself, playing with reversing the terms, warned in a famous article that “Madrid se va”. Despite the warnings, the clash of trains was inevitable.The years of the 'Procés' left the PSC in a very bad state. Its leaders promised themselves that they would never again allow an overdose of Catalanism to jeopardize their relationship with the PSOE. Then came the 155, the repression, and the fall of Rajoy's PP. When two socialist presidents coincided again in Catalonia and Spain, Salvador Illa promised to focus on management and move away from identity-related disquisitions. But he had plans. Illa, in the style of Pujol, that is to say, without stridency, has executed a strategy in favor of his version of the Olympic ideal, that of "Catalonia is Spain and Spain is Catalonia," with the aim of dissolving the mental and political wall between both realities; his ultimate goal is that, in the eyes of the Catalans, the State and the Generalitat be two extensions of the same body –that is, of the same political and emotional reality.Illa has been skillful enough to carry out this policy despite depending on the votes of the pro-independence parties. For example, Junts managed to secure the commitment to Catalanize the second TVE channel; the socialists christened it 2Cat (a name that is not at all innocent) and used it to broadcast the matches of la roja in Catalan. ERC demanded the transfer of the Rodalies service, and the result has been a joint consortium that will encompass, under a new brand, all railway services, both those that run well and those that are a disaster. Thus, management and responsibility are diluted. The same formula is applied to the new tax consortium, and it serves for large infrastructure, cultural facilities, foreign policy... Catalonia is Spain, Spain is Catalonia. The best way to tame the Catalans is to give them a taste of real power: as the Count-Duke of Olivares said four centuries ago.The question is whether this strategic commitment, which is also a party policy, will be able to survive the current situation, with Pedro Sánchez cornered and the Spanish nationalist right lying in wait. If the PP comes to power, it will have two options regarding Catalonia: follow its own instincts (and those of Vox) or, in a fit of lucidity, maintain this joint relationship with the Catalan government, which is the best way to strengthen the presence of the State in Catalonia without it being noticed.

Politics is an art that requires combining various areas of action and thought. The macro and the micro, the local and the global, the urgent and the necessary. When I say politics, I mean, more precisely, public management. Politics, unfortunately, has the current day as its absolute priority and the next electoral call as its only horizon. We live—and we want to live—in a democracy, and our capricious right to suffrage conditions everything our managers do. Only dictators can afford the luxury of opening the focus, projecting, foreseeing, stretching time, accelerating and braking, letting things simmer, facing urgent trivialities without neglecting the great challenges that belong to a medium term that never quite materializes.God forbid I call for a dictatorship, but I would like it if, at least in Catalonia, the wisest people would think about the country we will have in twenty years' time, and for their predictions to mark a roadmap for the managers of the present. This is not only sensible, but it is already happening: we have framework agreements for the future of education that are systematically ignored (President Illa has just proposed another one). We have the 2030 Agenda and the EU's plan against climate change, which technofascism tries to discredit, something that would not be necessary, because the egoism of national governments and unforeseen circumstances are already in charge of making them shipwreck.In Catalonia, we have national plans for language, for culture, for mental health, for industry, for the knowledge society, and I don't know how many other subjects. But the chronic instability of governments, and above all the fundamental disagreement between sovereignists and autonomists (because sovereignists, rightly, believe that global challenges cannot be addressed with a Statute of Autonomy), prevents us from applying realistic recipes.

There are two ways to analyze this year's Diada. The pessimistic one reminds us that the country faces internal problems, and the latent threat of an involution in Spain, which –historically– indicates that we will be the ones to suffer. But in this context, the Eleventh of September has brought some 50,000 people to the streets, with more young people than ever; it is a respectable figure in our listless present. But it has also reminded us that among “our own” there are people who exude hatred. A new poll predicts the meteoric rise of Aliança Catalana. Overall, Parliament would once again have an absolute pro-independence majority, which will not be operational because there is a political and moral abyss between those who could be involved. If it serves as any consolation, the “Spanish” bloc is equally useless (unless the PSC wants to commit suicide by making a pact with the PP and Vox). Who will fish in these troubled waters? Many of us warned that the baton blows against the ballot boxes on October 1st could create a generation of skeptics. But we were not thinking of Orriols when, after the imprisonment of the pro-independence leaders, we shouted “The smiles are over!” Andreu Nin also, in April 1931, wrote: “Ourrevolutionwill not be so cheerful”. Because independence, like any revolution, is a serious affair. But Orriols has nothing serious about her, beyond her ridiculous solemnity. Her discourse, besides being an ethical failure of Catalanism, is a distraction and a deception.

The right-wing shift of the country is advancing unstoppably. I am not speaking in electoral terms, but rather about the level of tension and simplification of the debate, ingredients of this turn towards the purest and hardest right, the one that boasts of easily finding culprits and remedies. The right is taking over the landscape and finding fertile ground in a country like Catalonia, where several factors of disaffection coincide: a) a feeling of decadence and uprooting; b) a real strain on public services, and c) the pendular response to the left-wing turn of the years of the 'Procés', when the CUP set the agenda with an impractical and highly moralistic leftism (“Franciscan”, as Enric Juliana called it). The 2010s, in Catalonia, were an Age of Aquarius, with a lot of posturing and clichés. Manuel Delgado has said that “in the face of hate speech, the left has offered urban gardens”. It is an exaggeration, but one based on real facts.I am of a certain age and I remember how the yuppies hedonists of the 80s laughed at the hippies. Everything is cyclical, but each cycle makes things worse. The migration crisis has derailed the left, which has been left without an answer, has worn out the term fascist to the point that it no longer means anything and has left the field open to half-baked Trumpists who preach Manichaeism and ethnic hatred. To face this offensive, anti-fascism no longer has a David Fernàndez, but rather Juana Dolores and other parodies that dare to speak in the name of the working class and continue to point out trivialities instead of addressing what had always been the strong point of the left: real policies against inequality and the collapse of public services. These are major threats that the rampant right will hardly address, because it is more profitable for them to spread fear and hatred towards the weak, and, in the case of Spain, to stimulate a jingoistic resurgence that, even without exaggeration, can be branded as neo-Francoist. The most worrying thing about this phenomenon is not the brainless with their braying, but the police, the judges, and the economic and media oligarchies that hope to fish in troubled waters. It is a coalition too powerful for the PSOE to deal with, considering that the Sánchez government is driving without a steering wheel and with flat tires.Spain is moving with firm steps towards the hegemony of the PP and Vox, which will have a lesser reflection in Catalonia. But in front of it, there is no longer the old transversal, mesocratic Catalanism based on civic strength, but rather a PSC surrendered to the PSOE and, therefore, in a state of shock; two depressed parties managing the shipwreck of the 'Procés' and a local far-right that instead of challenging the State, as it should, prefers to attack those who wear a veil and do not eat pork. A desolate panorama that can only be reversed when Catalan identity—which, despite its thinning, constitutes our core, in a country torn apart by divisions of all kinds—decides to form a common front and stand up. Since October 1st, we know that this means conflict. External and internal. Are we prepared for it?Let us remember –once again– the journalist Agustí Calvet, Gaziel. In 1936, when Companys asked him for advice, the journalist predicted the rise of fascism and the fall of the republic: “Will we have time to organize ourselves (...) so that when the inevitable collapse comes, our freedoms do not also collapse?”, he asked himself. And finally, an appeal to the unity of the Catalans: “It is not (...) an indispensable task: it is THE ONLY ONE”. The difference is that Gaziel advocated for this Catalan unity in the face of “Castilian and Castilianized Spain”, and today we know that it is not possible to make a clean break between these two realities. Here is the challenge we will face.

On Wednesday I was at the summer party of ARA, where, besides greeting colleagues and readers, I heard live the conversation between Albert Om and Ada Parellada, who in September returns to the newspaper to share her recipe book with her numerous followers. Ada is a whirlwind of a woman, and you can easily imagine her cooking four dishes at once. But she is a person with a very thoughtful discourse, in which enthusiasm responds not only to impulse but to a method and an idea. When I hear her, or Maria Nicolau, or Empar Moliner, and so many other people who talk about the land, the product, the wines, and agriculture, I realize that behind their fiery speeches there is not only hedonism, good habits, and environmentalism, but a whole idea of country, of how what is now called the territory should be managed, of how food connects us with a way of doing and living that are also past, heritage, and culture in all senses of the term.I would venture to say that, in these times of political discredit, these proclamations are an authentic reformulation of Catalanism, that concept which, as Josep Pla said, links with everything, and which always knows how to reinvent itself and disguise itself in the most useful way to approach the objective – which is, as always, the defense of the right to exist of a national community–. In the 17th century (and until 1714) Catalanism was revolt; in the 18th, economic development; in the 19th, simultaneously and not always friendly, it was cultural renaissance and social revolution. In the 20th century, political Catalanism exploded, harshly repressed by two dictatorships. And now, in times of political weariness and authentic demographic metamorphosis, one of the safe havens of Catalanism is the land, also threatened, but which continues to function as a mirror of the values and intangible heritage of the country. If cuisine is – back to Josep Pla – the landscape put in a pot, the nation is a human collective living together in the same space. If the political landscape is a wasteland, and the human landscape changes constantly, the natural landscape, the space where we exist, becomes even more the repository of some essential truths that define us and allow us to face changes with the tranquility of knowing that some things – the fruits of the land and culinary tradition – remain unaltered, even if they are enriched and diversified over time. They are the roots that prevent the tree from having to suffer from the length and reach of the new branches, which alter its shape without damaging its essence.This Catalanism of the land, or of the fruits of the land, does not only serve to claim escudella, garnacha, sea and mountain or ratafia. It is also the guarantee of a model of country that respects the environment, the sown fields, fishing and livestock; a country that does not let itself be swallowed by exorbitant growth or the greed of tourism. A country, in short, that respects itself, that does not renounce offering all the good it has to the world. Of this, in politics, we would call it sovereignty. And while history shows us that politics ends up being necessary to defend the country's model, we also know, as is tradition in this land, that when politics fails it is society that protects and organizes itself, shines with its own light and makes the country remain despite not appearing on maps with its own color. I toast, therefore, to all the farmers, ranchers, fishermen, restaurant or home cooks, sommeliers and disseminators who help us understand that, under a surface increasingly battered by plastic and cement, there is the land, watching the centuries and millennia pass, reminding us who we are.

I also think, like Minister Puente, that Carles Puigdemont should pack his bags and show up in Barcelona, and get himself arrested if necessary, to demonstrate that Spanish justice is a political entity at the service of Spanish nationalism, and that it is indifferent to contradicting the CJEU, as it has already corrected itself regarding the popular sovereignty represented in Parliament. But I will not do it, because even though I am convinced that such a gesture would be good for the country, and bad for Spain's international reputation, I do not see myself able to ask for sacrifices from a person who has been forced to live away from her homeland for nine years.In addition to Puigdemont and other leaders, there are dozens of political officials and high-ranking civil servants whose futures are still compromised, as they are awaiting, two years later, the application of the amnesty that the pro-independence parties managed to impose on the PSOE in exchange for Pedro Sánchez's investiture. Two years of false reconciliation, of a forced reunion that is based on blackmail. This deceitful normality has gripped the freedom of action of two parties that paid dearly for the hesitations of 2017 and that have failed in all attempts to regain the initiative. Each has failed in its own way, with its own mirages; Junts, with the mystical trap of Waterloo, and ERC, with the prosaic trap of partial agreements that reality, shaped in Madrid, renders inapplicable. And in addition, there is the joint failure of rivalry and disunity, which has caused the option of presenting a weak PSOE with a genuine tug-of-war that would allow us to say that the Procés was not entirely in vain to fade away.The ruling of the CJEU is a reputational defeat for Spain and its judges, but for Catalonia it is only a tactical victory with limited impact. In short, everyone loses, but at least we can say that we are closer to closing one chapter – not that of the Process, but that of false reconciliation – and opening another: that of the new country project, presented without baggage, with new ideas and faces. Everything is more difficult than two decades ago, but those of us who were there are still here (in the background, but we are here), and the problems and threats that made us take to the streets, unfortunately, continue to lurk, even more serious and painful. A new generation must draw the future, without humiliating those who did not succeed, but without allowing themselves to be constrained by their legacy.Meanwhile, with Catalanism banned from the streets, football-mad Spain has gone on the offensive, because it knows what's at stake, because it has no other burning key to sustain its identity, and because in our country there are enough fools to swallow the World Cup placebo and forget about the fundamental question, which is who this monstrous state marketing operation truly benefits, who it is saving the furniture for, just as the 1978 championship saved the backside of dictator Videla.I hope, since we are talking about it, that after the suffocating experience of this Football World Cup, it will not be necessary to insist again to our politicians on the fact that the symbolic battle for Catalonia is as important as the battle for sovereignty or for taxes. It is demonstrated that symbolic capital, in plural entities, can be divided just as competences and resources are divided. The fact that Spain reserves its exclusivity, to make it a tool for unification and indoctrination through mass sport, denies the plurality of the State and is a luxury we cannot afford. That Catalonia and Euskadi participate in European-level championships would be a first step to correct this operation, so well crafted, of national assimilation through the leisure (or opium) of the people.

The recent CEO survey can easily lead to two opposing conclusions: The first is the existence of underlying electoral currents that invite the alarmists to imagine a country ideologically shattered and with a large presence of disaffected people or supporters of this tendency of ours (constant but intermittent) to throw everything away.But the same data allow for a second reading. Based on cold arithmetic, while accepting that the country is a hornet's nest, the poll does not allow us to imagine many scenarios beyond a more or less nuanced continuation, that is, a government resulting from the pact between PSC and ERC, with the support of the Comuns or Junts, depending on its outcome. It would not be an overwhelming majority, but it would have the atomization of the opposition in its favor, which will turn out to be an insoluble mixture of ideological enemies.The great destabilizing factor that the CEO reveals is the consolidated existence of a dual far-right vote – Catalan and Spanish – around 25% of the votes (more than 30%, if we add the PP). The dazzling irruption of Sílvia Orriols' party is what most catches the attention, because it could go from nothing to 25 deputies, positioning itself in first place in Girona and Lleida, which demonstrates not only the rightward shift of the electorate, a phenomenon common throughout Europe, but also the defensive turn of a part of the independence movement, which has exchanged the naive illusion of ten years ago for radicalism (fruit of repression and the “rendition” of traditional independence), and also due to the fear of national dissolution as a consequence of demographic changes.

For those of us who like football, it's very difficult to enjoy the World Cup, with all this display of banal nationalism and cheap geopolitics. You might tell me, as the elders used to say, and as Aesop said before, that the fox, when it can't reach something, says it's sour. And indeed, I wish Catalonia could participate in this circus, and it irritates me that FIFA instigates a fever of patriotism — as it does every four years — which, in our case, is the expression of a substituted identity. When faced with a World Cup, everyone chooses a jersey, and if the Catalan one isn't available, they put on another, be it the Spanish one (because it's where Catalans play, by decree), the Moroccan one, or the Argentine one, which is the one for many newcomers. In Catalonia, everyone has the right to exercise, except Catalans.Spain is a fragile nation and knows that sport softens the cracks. Since now, in addition, there are many Catalans in the Spanish team, a Muslim and a black person, Spanish nationalism progress has prepared a speech tailored to them, evading the fact that the purported plurality of the red is based on an imposition. Obviously, they have the complicity of the Catalan players, who adapt to the situation because they do not want to be under suspicion. Lamine Yamal speaks Catalan, if necessary, when he wears the Barça jersey, but he gives it up at the World Cup so that there are no doubts about his loyalties, which may be those of the heart but also those dictated by common sense and the pressure of his environment: look, Lamine, they already look at you strangely because you are half Moroccan and Muslim, let's not make it more complicated with demonstrations of Catalanism.

It used to be a tradition for political parties to hold tribute ceremonies for their members with 25, 50, or even 75 years of membership. This rewarded purely sentimental values – loyalty, coherence –that politically go against a basic principle of democracy, which is the right to change one's mind. If everyone said "I am from ERC" or "I am from PP", with the same pride and conviction with which others say "I am from Barça" or "I am from La Penya", there would be no need to hold elections, just to call the roll from a register in which membership would be a datum as unmovable as the date of birth. In politics, the electoral strength of each option must depend on its behavior, and also on its response to changing circumstances.It can be argued that, if ideologies and political practice change, at least values should remain. But how many of the values we grew up with remain immaculate? And above all, how many of these values do not end up colliding, so that, by force, they must be relativized? How is the right to personal prosperity compatible with the aspiration of social justice? Can we be in favor of unhindered immigration and, at the same time, defend the continuity of Catalan identity, so marginalized? Can we simultaneously defend inclusive education, which leaves no one behind, and the detection and promotion of excellence?Difficult questions are what give meaning to our way of behaving as citizens. Perpetual doubt causes errors and missteps, but it is also a driving force for understanding change. Enough has happened at a national and planetary level for us to force ourselves to keep an open mind and discuss those things that make us uncomfortable, and which for some time now have been called the elephant in the room. In Catalonia there are long-standing elephants –identity, the relationship with Spain– and there are new ones –the migratory phenomenon, the degradation of public services, climate change, the scourge of tourism, housing.In all these matters, I think differently than when I was 25 years old. For example, a few decades ago we dreamed of having a global capital like Barcelona, without suspecting the collateral damage; we wanted papers for everyone, because we didn't imagine that Catalans would reach such a sharp point of minoritization. And we believed that the demand in school, which the priests had instilled in us in bad ways, had to be replaced by a more empathetic pedagogy, which has now entered a crisis, for often extra-educational reasons.Only change remains. And another thing: the national community. Despised because of the aggressive nationalisms of the last century, identity appears to us not as an ideology, but as a natural method that humans use to crystallize in a diverse world, an anchor that people (especially if they are far from their homeland) try to preserve. For me, belonging helps me define myself and relate to others. And it makes me irremediably independentist, because if I want to face all the elephants in my room, I need a room of my own – if possible, well-ventilated and with a view–. And, instead, I find myself sharing a small room in the hands of a landlord who overcharges me and does what he wants with my elephants.To put it without metaphors, Catalans are a national community that has lost its tools and its voice. It does not have enough capacity to solve the problems of its citizens. And where all the peoples of the world make themselves heard - whether it is the EU, the climate summit or the Football World Cup - we sacrifice our existence on the altar of a state that, to assert itself, needs to deny us.At this point, I confess that I have not changed my mind.

One of the worst insults one can receive in this country is that of “processist”. We were so fed up with the political episode that culminated in October 2017. For Spaniards, the Process was a seditious and irresponsible exercise. For independence supporters, it was a display of improvisation and cowardice. Both sides are united in their stubborn determination to discredit the protagonists of that adventure. This coincidence in harsh criticism contrasts with the very different price that the two sides have paid for it On the independence side, there has been a considerable washout, due to repression and personal wear and tear. Changes in politics are logical; the subsequent public lynching by the most irascible sector of the sovereignist bases themselves is not so much. All in all, it seems evident to me that the punishment (real and reputational) suffered by the repressed has been much more severe than that of the repressors. It can be argued that grassroots independence showed itself extremely solidarity at least until the Tsunami Democràtic (which also failed) and the Urquinaona incidents; afterwards, the dispute between the symbolic fanfare of exile and the pactist turn of ERC spread disillusionment. Finally, the idea prevailed that the leaders of the Process, by focusing on the anti-repression struggle (which resulted in pardons and amnesty), were helping to bury – once again – the sovereignist dispute. The two main protagonists of the Process – Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras – remain at the forefront. The first has been in exile for nine years; the second spent four years in prison and remains disqualified. Both are waiting for the amnesty, wrested with forceps from the PSOE government, to overcome the obstacles posed by the vindictive Spanish judiciary. However great the mistakes they made in 2017, they have paid for them in full. Both want a last dance, an opportunity to redeem themselves.

Everyone I know is trying to decide whether they are satisfied, or not, with the Pope's visit and the enthronement of Antoni Gaudí as a global icon. I also live in contradiction, because Leo XIV says things I like but represents an institution that seems archaic, hypocritical, and opaque to me. But after the superlative spectacle of the Sagrada Família, I believe the papal visit has a clear winner, and it's not so much Leo XIV as the Barcelona-Catalonia binomial, a territory of roots and modernity, of dreams and revolts, which with its oily identity challenges the political and religious limits that uselessly try to bridle it. So much so that on Thursday, seeing the kings of Spain on TV, I didn't feel they were there to appropriate everything, as always, but rather they seemed small, small before the great modernist bastion, watching helplessly the takeoff of a superior form of Catalanity, which is too old, too modern, too beautiful, and too delirious to find a place in such a worn-out container as monarchical and constitutional Spain. Felipe's face said: I'm here as just another tourist.I am probably going further than Gaudí himself, so Catalan but so ecumenical, would wish. But I allow myself to recall the comment he made after Miguel de Unamuno visited the temple and confessed that he did not like it: “No Spaniard likes it”. The celestial appearance of the master from Reus by means of drones, observing the culmination of his work, was a triumphant image, the triumph of the solitary madman, the typical Catalan dreamer, who is greater than kings and popes, and who gives us a seal, a tattoo on the skin of the country, at a time when the country, and its capital, is at risk of becoming dull, with the fear of not recognizing oneself and of not identifying one's roots and those things that give it meaning, above centuries and people.Precisely, the people who attended the event at the Sagrada Família, who are the same people who have followed all the Pope's events, were perfect representatives of the ultracatholic contingent of the country: the high Barcelona bourgeoisie (more like fans of the Burgos Cathedral), the Pope's youth from Opus Dei schools and a profuse representation of Latin American communities, too recent to understand the depth of the foundations of the Sagrada Família. In general, they were all papal enthusiasts, people little or not at all connected with Gaudí's universe and all the cultural, religious, architectural, and civil substratum behind it. All these sectors also form today's Catalonia, and all of them, willingly or not, were swallowed, like luxury extras, by the visual and sonic wave, inevitably Catalan by the force of facts and centuries, and projected as such, immediately, throughout the world.Gaudí is also inevitably Catalan, and his work is explained not only by him, but by the country that saw him born. But his charm is that he combines with everything; he is admired by Catholics and secular people from the five continents. Sharing him with the world is a joy and a privilege, because the world wants him as he is, that is, Catalan. And since he is already dead, there is no danger that Madrid will steal him from us through scrapes and tax rebates, as they almost did with Salvador Dalí, another dreamer more Catalan than a whip, who admired Gaudí and considered himself his brother even by his surname (gaudir and delir are synonymous words). But Dalí, avid for dollars, did not precisely aspire to sainthood, and faced with the political absurdity of his century, he ended up disguising himself as a Francoist, which was perhaps the most surreal (and the most practical) thing he could think of. This earned him the posthumous homage, of course, of Albert Boadella. There is no danger that he will do the same with Gaudí.

The battle for education will have dire consequences for students, families, the teachers who are striking, and, above all, for the protagonists of the negotiation process: on the one hand, the unions, disavowed by their base, and on the other, the Department of Education, which has seen its ups and downs and last-minute concessions prove futile. In short, it is a battle where everyone loses. There will be – indeed – labor improvements for some public servants who certainly deserve them (but they are not the only ones), but the great pending issue, which is the crisis in the educational model, will continue to await better times, times when generosity and a national vision prevail over tactical maneuvering and vested interests.On a political level, the conflict has confirmed the failure of the Illa government's narrative. They sold us good management and a de-escalation of tension, but the times when the PSC boasted of having anesthetized the country are long gone. On the contrary, it has been shown that the problems that, in part, motivated the rise of sovereigntism are still very much alive, although for the moment there is no social movement capable of turning citizen anger into a shock force. The country is as fed up as ever, but it has been deprived of a horizon of change and improvement. And the anger is beginning to give oxygen to those who are always ready to point to the most vulnerable, as victims but also as involuntary accomplices of a productive model that is crushing the social contract and the factors of collective cohesion. To top it all off, the PSC no longer relies on the PSOE's trump card (which is also the anti-PP trump card), because Sánchez's future is becoming clouded by moments.This scenario can entice the PSC's electoral rivals, but precisely the educational crisis should make them see that tactical maneuvering, when faced with the real challenges of the country, is not an option. ERC and CiU have already suffered teacher strikes, and both parties are complicit in the failure of the Catalan school model. It is up to the Government to initiate a new national pact for education, and it is up to the opposition – and the teachers – to have the generosity to get fully involved without thinking about their particular interests, be they electoral, ideological, or corporate.We don't know what would happen today in an election, but we do know that the citizenry is discontent. If the far-right rises, it will be difficult to avoid closer collaboration between the country's central forces –PSC, Junts, ERC, Comuns–, regardless of the number of seats they obtain. Since right now everyone is fighting with everyone, it is civil society that is making proposals (the Informe Fènix" is the clearest example). But, in the long run, institutions must exercise the leadership that corresponds to them. This does not just mean parliamentary consensus; it also means a constituent process to end the abnormality of Catalan political life, which has the theoretical leader of the opposition in exile, independentists disqualified or awaiting trial due to an amnesty that is a wet paper, and all this governed by an Autonomy Statute that has been cut and not ratified by the citizenry.If the PSC wants to lead the country and undertake the great reforms that are increasingly urgent, it now knows that it cannot do it alone. It also knows that its potential allies are sovereigntist or confederalist parties – in any case, parties that challenge the current constitutional framework. This will become even more evident when the PP and Vox reach Moncloa. More sovereignty and more resources are needed to face the present and save the future. Who will dare to oppose this watchword? Fortunately for Salvador Illa, ERC and Junts are too busy sticking their fingers in their eyes and resolving their internal contradictions. One day, however, they will see the handle of the frying pan in front of them.

The ideological frameworks of the xenophobic right are making inroads into the political mainstream. Not so much due to the growth of Aliança Catalana as to the way its discourse is contaminating the rest of the party landscape. This is not unrelated to a moral victory for the far-right, but it also means that parties have decided not to turn their backs on an issue that people consider important, such as immigration management. And they do so by sweetening the most aggressive proposals of Sílvia Orriols' party.It is a similar process (with apologies for the comparison) to what the left has done with environmentalism, which was previously a ridiculed cause and labeled as hippy, until science made everyone realize that it was a matter of paramount importance. The posthumous victory of the green parties was not their hegemony, but the assumption of their ideology by the left – and part of the right – throughout the West.I don't think Aliança Catalana will conquer the central lane of Catalanism, but a part of its ideology, which is largely racist and fascistoid, will be integrated into the ideological corpus of the democratic right (in a format acceptable to its voters) and, finally, perhaps, by the left. The first step has been to accept that immigration is a problem, a challenge that should be presented as a socioeconomic issue and not in cultural or moral terms. This makes it easier to swallow.The debate now is not about races or cultures, but about the economic model: unchecked growth and the strain on public services. On these issues, the conclusion reached by economists (like the signatories of the Informe Fènix) is that Catalonia depends excessively on tourism, which gentrifies and saturates the territory, and furthermore encourages the massive import of cheap labor, which does not help sustain the welfare state. Immigration, therefore, is only beneficial for a part of the Catalan productive fabric (not only tourism, but also the agri-food industry), which exploits it and underpays it in exchange for collapsing public services. This approach, which disregards skin colors, religions, and burqas, makes the demographic debate more accessible to the majority forces.But the migratory debate is not only making headway through technification. The identity issue is reviving. Like any small nation, Catalans fear their dissolution, the sacrifice of their culture on the altar of globalization. At the same time, certain progressivism, while condemning racism and aporophobia, attacks tourists, expats, the mafias that hide behind the swarm of supermarkets and souvenir shops, and the vulture funds, which “merserve” our rejection because they are in a position of power with respect to the defenseless neighbors who have to abandon their neighborhood, the traditional commerce that closes its doors, the Catalan that disappears from the streets. It is a kind of progressive, tolerable xenophobia, where the weak is no longer the one who arrives but the one who welcomes.The problem is that, even though we point to a different enemy, the battle is very similar to the one defended by the far-right (first those from home, rejection of diversity, defense of values and autochthonous culture). We are opening a crack through which toxic ideas can infiltrate. While remembering that the ills of the Catalan production model are not only the fault of outsiders; they are, above all, the fault of the natives who exploit them.In this context, we must ensure that this ideological conversion serves a good purpose (disarming the far-right and bravely facing a real debate) and does not provide moral cover for racism. For this reason, it is very important to frame the debate and place it in the hands of wise people vaccinated against ethnic prejudice.

Without Rufián, ERC's electoral perimeter will be smaller; with him, their voters will not know exactly what they are voting for.It is now evident that Gabriel Rufián is not only a dissenting voice within ERC but also a leader with his own agenda and the ability to overshadow the party he belongs to. Therefore, for ERC, managing Rufián's weight (or absence) is a fundamental issue.The veteran republican party must measure its moves carefully. Having overcome a disastrous electoral cycle, it is weighed down by the failure of its institutional experiments (presidency of Aragonès and mayorships of Lleida, Tarragona, and other important cities). Oriol Junqueras is a son of the Process, which is both a halo and a stigma. And his political future is in the hands of the judges, which conditions everything. Faced with Junts' maximalism, ERC plays the card of pragmatism and conditioned support for the socialists. But this, which sells relatively well in Spain, is more difficult in Catalonia, due to the repeated non-compliance and management problems of the PSC. And despite everything, the polls are relatively favorable to him. Does the Rufián factor have anything to do with it? The one from Santa Coloma not only sweeps among Spanish left-wing voters, but also (at least in this newspaper's recent poll) is the best rated by Catalan voters, even beyond the pro-independence orbit. For Junqueras, Rufián widens the base. He cannot do without him, but he has serious problems controlling him. What to do? If Junqueras gives himself over to Rufián's speech (a populist, effective, but uncertain narrative) he will be buying electoral intention in exchange for assuming an uncertain and short-term bet. Instead of independence, Rufián proposes resistance: postponing the Catalan dispute to face PP, Vox and Junts (which he presents as a three-headed monster) with the unity of the alternative and plurinational left. There is no doubt that if ERC, Bildu, BNG, Compromís and Endavant Andalusia coordinated better in Madrid, they could install the debate on plurinationality (and self-determination) in the center of the Spanish ring, either by conditioning the PSOE or by erecting themselves as a containment wall for the Spanish right. But we don't know if that's what really motivates Rufián. And on the other hand, the only parties that buy into his narrative are not the sovereignists, but Sumar, Podem and Comuns. Those who are in low hours. Given Rufián's difficulties in converting his unitary calls into a realistic project, perhaps Junqueras has decided to remain silent and wait for reality to put him in his place. But as long as Rufián's future role is not clear, ERC's expectations will be doubtful. Without him, the party's electoral perimeter will be smaller; with him, ERC voters will not know exactly what they are voting for. Rufián does not live a party life and ignores his group mates; his fun is to offend Junts deputies and praise, somewhat forcedly, the colleagues from Sumar and even those from the PSOE. Catalan politics is very far from him; he never appears with Junqueras, he does not talk about independence (only passively: "I am fed up with Catalans being judged on whether they are independentists or not"). He has counter-programmed Junqueras' photo with Illa for the signing of the budgets. And he has not said a word, for example, about the conflicts of the PSC government with public education and healthcare. A notable exercise in restraint for a chatterbox like him. The great Catalanist parties have always had a double face (Macià and Companys, Pujol and Roca) but making these kinds of tandems work, with one foot in Madrid and another in Barcelona, is an art in itself, typical of solid parties with a well-crafted strategy and discourse. The management of contradictions is what characterizes large parties. ERC still has to prove it can do so successfully. And a new electoral cycle is approaching.

A man from Cordoba, Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, president of the Spanish Republic (1931-36), is the author of one of the phrases that have best defined the dual nature of Catalanism. Don Niceto told Francesc Cambó, in the Cortes, that “you cannot be at the same time the Bolívar of Catalonia and the Bismarck of Spain”. A phrase that could also have been applied to Lluís Companys, Miquel Roca or Gabriel Rufián. Being a Catalanist in Madrid implies a contradiction difficult to manage. On the other hand, Andalusianism is an equally intense sentiment but one that combines with Spanishness as well as chamomile and soda water at the Feria de Abril. Because Andalusia (which according to its Statute of Autonomy is a nationality) has an irrefutable, even exuberant, identity, but it is Castilian in origin, and has contributed as much as Castile to the definition of what is Spanish.

I've been in Andalusia for a few days and I've had a curious feeling of well-being, not new, because it reminds me of a recent stay in Madrid, under totally different circumstances. I soon deduced that the reason for this well-being is the language. More precisely, the absence of linguistic stress that we Catalans suffer in our daily lives. When I move around the territories of monolingual Spain, my brain clicks and frees itself from linguistic unease: here Spanish is spoken, only Spanish, and there's nothing to discuss. Then the relationship with others, with people, is simplified from the outset, the conversation flows and lengthens, and after a short while this linguistic truce translates into physical relaxation; the brain feels it has been freed from a nuisance.No matter how much they tell us that bilingualism is a richness, the truth is that an undisputed lingua franca greatly facilitates human relationships. And in most cities and countries, the language of collective relation is one and sufficient. In Barcelona and a good part of Catalonia, for mental, social, and finally demographic reasons, the lingua franca is Spanish, and we who consider that Catalan needs our firmness as much as the empathy of others, like a good legal umbrella, rebel against this fact. But we Catalan speakers socialize with the certainty that every day we expose ourselves to potentially conflictive situations. If we always speak Catalan – as is our right, and as sociolinguists recommend – we risk not being understood, having to repeat everything twice, enduring scowls and perhaps some exclamation, being labeled as intolerant, xenophobic, and even unsociable. And even if our Spanish-speaking interlocutor is receptive, empathetic, or has understood that life will be better with Catalan (which is what should be), often the conversation that arises is too basic, orthopedic, like tourists, and the linguistic stress remains.If, on the other hand, we switch to the other person's language (out of "politeness", laziness, to avoid unpleasantness, or because simply the future of Catalan doesn't matter to us that much), we are condemned to a second added linguistic stress: the one that comes from guilt, the little voice inside (or outside, for that there are social networks) that tells us we're doing it wrong, that it will be of little use to invest in normalization if Catalan speakers don't always speak it, risking spoiling our day, or catching a cold, or who knows what.I understand very well the frustration of the Pakistani or Honduran citizen who, after taking the relevant Catalan course, cannot practice it because the natives take for granted that he won't understand. But that's usually the case: the vast majority of foreigners do not understand Catalan nor do they speak it (they haven't needed to). And it comes to a moment for all of us when linguistic stress asks for a truce. Or for a little affection: Catalan speakers, in addition to demanding firmness, must also be reminded that the decline of Catalan is not their fault, and they must be thanked for the sum of small and large gestures that have allowed our language to survive centuries of aggression.I'm writing this on the plane that's taking me from Seville to Barcelona. In the boarding queue, a lovely elderly couple approached me with a smile: "You used to be on TV3, right? You're not on now. Let's see if you come back!"

There are many ways to divide Catalonia, but the most naive is the one that draws a line between "real Catalonia" and all invented or synecdochic Catalonias. There are people who believe they have discovered the DNA of authentic Catalanism at the Feria de Abril, organized by the powerful and doped lobby of Andalusian entities, where the rebujito and flamenco are starting to clash with the mojito and reggaeton (because, for the defenders of real Catalonia, plurality is synonymous with hispanicity and nothing more). From which it can be deduced that, if by an improbable migratory phenomenon, half a million Catalans were to move to live in Andalusia and a casteller group called Los Chiquitos de Fuengirola were formed there, a 4 of 9 with folre i manilles would be as Andalusian as the pilgrimage to El Rocío.It is as absurd to put the April Fair into the bag of Catalan culture as it would be to put the Oktoberfest and flamenco begin to stumble over the bourgeois.For this reason, the failure of the sovereignist process, with the marvellous swan song that was October 1st, constitutes a national drama: it was the occasion for Catalonia to take a step forward in a climate of democratic celebration and respect for plurality that had nothing to do with the system of punishment and repression that successive Spanish governments have imposed before and since. An independent Catalonia, or at least more sovereign, could it have managed its plurality better than it currently does? Resoundingly, yes. But the weakness of the sovereignist leaders and the inflexibility of the Spanish powers made impossible a country agreement, democratic yet plural, regarding individual and collective identities.That failure was not only of the sovereignists, but of the whole country, and also of a Spanishness(that of the real Spain?) which in the end needed the police and the judges to prevail. Now we are paying the consequences. We have public services in a mess, a situation of plunder that no one bothers to deny, and a vital but increasingly minoritized language. And above all, we have a disillusioned native element, which has lost the generosity of October 1st, and which in part has allowed itself to be seduced by the siren songs of the far-right. After the victory of batons over ballot boxes, did anyone expect anything else? It is very curious that those who most exclaim about the 'orriolista' rise are those who have made it grow, by subordinating Catalan identity to Spanish identity and beheading the democratic sovereignist parties, with a cynically conformist shrug of the shoulders –it's the market, friend–. And they will call us supremacists... How dare they!

In a country that is doing badly, with a minority Generalitat government and too many open fronts, one might think that Catalan sovereignty has a window of opportunity to regain prominence and raise the level of national ambition. Instead, the parties that led the Procés – Junts and ERC – are competing in their own ring, in a bubble that only interests their leaders, and setting aside national interest, which is what could truly propel them electorally. It is one thing that there is no strategic unity; and another is that the weekly squabbles between Rufián and Nogueras occupy the space and time that their respective parties should dedicate to taking advantage of the weakness of the PSC and the PSOE.This week, Junts has seized media prominence with a double refusal. The first – voting against the housing decree – is difficult to understand in a context of housing emergency, especially considering that the PSOE and Sumar were willing to negotiate fiscal measures for small landlords and self-employed workers. That Puigdemont's party has been so inflexible is explained by temperamental reasons (taking revenge on Yolanda Díaz for her theatrics) and tactical ones (making themselves valuable to the Catalan economic right). It is legitimate for Junts to want to regain the center-right space, but doing so at the cost of tenants' suffering is, at the very least, insensitive. Future elections will tell them if the gamble has been successful or not.It is more incomprehensible that Junts opposes the State-Generalitat investment consortium, a measure agreed upon by ERC with the PSOE to prevent unexecuted investments (systematically and scandalously) by successive Spanish governments from being lost. This can only be explained by absurd maximalism and by the desire not to give any success to adversaries, even if it reduces the Generalitat's resources and decision-making power. Furthermore, the terminology used by Nogueras (“We don't need another little stall”) seems more appropriate for other political options.However: instead of taking advantage of this slip-up to present themselves as the party of useful sovereignty, ERC has preferred, once again, to leave its narrative in the hands of Gabriel Rufián, who has turned it into a very low-tone comedy in the Congress tribune, focusing only on the housing issue (as if the investment consortium issue were too “local” for his audience) and engaging in unnecessary mockery of Junts deputies, which has allowed them to portray themselves as victims. And the Junts circle has upped the ante by comparing Rufián to Albert Rivera, and his discourse, to the logic of "A por ellos". Each episode of this farce is worse than the last. And meanwhile, the ERC leadership remains silent. Rufián gains and loses votes, we don't quite know to what extent, but his one-sided hostility torpedoes one of the party's assets: the ability to maneuver between the PSC and Junts, depending on the area of decision and the circumstances.I have always thought that Junts and ERC are two parties too consolidated for sovereignty to do without them. But a moment comes when it is legitimate to ask whether these kindergarten fights, which have been going on for a decade, are not a major obstacle – not to say the main obstacle – for a sovereignty that, at a social and popular level, shows much more maturity than its political representatives. We could say, as Estanislao Figueras did in 1873, that we are fed up with all of us. If this civil war continues (and it will continue as long as neither party is capable of devouring the other), perhaps one day it will have to be considered. Because parties are just tools, and in any trade, useless tools are either repaired or thrown away.

Our national blue monday is on September 12, 1714. According to chronicles, Barcelona opened its gates to the Franco-Spanish troops and the Duke of Berwick was surprised to see that the Barcelonians were working in the shops and workshops as if it were any other day: a moving example of tenacity. For me, the saddest day of the year is usually the day after Sant Jordi, when the aroma of roses and the bustle of writers and readers fade away, when the banners are folded and put away, and language and culture retreat again after a brilliant day of prominence. On April 24th, we realize that Sant Jordi is a mirage while the dragon continues to wag its tail. This year, despite everything, I have the feeling that something is stirring. Perhaps because of the success of Correllengua, perhaps because Òscar Andreu has conquered the podium with his Manual for the Defense of Catalan, or perhaps because believing is wanting to believe, but I detect a progressive linguistic awareness around me. It is a feeling that exudes anxiety, but also conviction. The emergency situation that Catalan is experiencing has contributed to visualizing the risks of an economic, political, and cultural model that, gradually but constantly, uproots us, dilutes us, and impoverishes us as a community. And it is not only Catalan speakers who notice this, but also many newcomers who, regardless of their linguistic choice, love the country and want it to continue being what it is. We must be smart enough to discern, among the enemies, these possible allies. And be inflexible with the rest. Òscar Andreu says: “Social bilingualism is a trap by those who demand that you be bilingual so that they can continue to be monolingual.”Language must be the battle of our lives. My parents' generation had the challenge of recovering democracy and autonomy, and they succeeded. My generation doubled down with the independence process, and did not have the same success. And the fight for language will be the great challenge for new batches of citizens. A titanic challenge steeped in history, because Catalan has been spoken in this country for a millennium, and it has been language that has forged us as a territory and as a country. The conservation –and expansion– of Catalan is a challenge as difficult as, or more difficult than, the preceding political struggles, because it implies a personal, daily, tenacious commitment. Not only from those who maintain Catalan, but from those who, sooner or later, will have to join it. Everything depends on the firmness of some, the empathy of others, and on policies as demanding with the native language as they are in all the countries of our environment.

It's not just the sun and the beach. Nor the gastronomy. Nor Gaudí. Barcelona is now also showing its magnetism to representatives of world progressivism. Pedro Sánchez has summoned them, and one cannot deny him either cunning or the gift of timing, making the aura of an international anti-Trump leader eclipse his domestic version, which is much grayer and more questioned. If the game board is the world, I am with Sánchez and against Trump, for the record. I am with him completely (the choice is not that difficult). But the view from within is different. Sánchez reminds me of Gorbachev during perestroika, acclaimed in the West, unpopular in Russia. Sánchez can play with better cards than old Gorby, who managed a ruined empire; but he has justice breathing down his neck, and the PP-Vox duo lurking him in the polls. It is understandable that he prefers to exploit his statesman profile. With what ease he acts as spokesman for world pacifism, and installs himself on the “right side of History” with Xi Jinping (Thursday) and Lula (Friday). Meanwhile, in the domestic sphere, the right grows on the shoulders of the ultras, the true left becomes smaller and smaller, despite Rufián's efforts, and the center does not exist. A Russian roulette scenario.If nothing else, the Catalan issue (which occupied the headlines last decade) is no longer causing problems. The proof: This weekend of progressive tourism in Barcelona. Because Barcelona, like Catalonia, has outsourced the management of its brand and its role in the world. The Spanish government now takes care of it, while Illa and Collboni act as cheerleaders. For Sánchez, being seen in Barcelona is very useful, not only to show that we have returned to the fold, but also because ours is a much more left-wing city than Madrid (and than Spain as a whole). Barcelona is the great refuge of the PSOE, which appropriates it, uproots it, isolates it from its hinterland, and turns it into an alternative capital. Of Spain, of course. A more plural Spain than that of the PP? Undoubtedly! But let's not kid ourselves: This weekend's spectacle is designed from Madrid to project the PSOE's Spain around the world. Primarily from the Latin American world. This is why all these summits use Spanish orally and in writing, ignoring the native language and the lingua franca. Barcelona, needless to say, looks divine, but it is only a backdrop. And the Generalitat, a silent guest. Did you know, by the way, that the Generalitat has a Ministry of Foreign Relations?Readers of a certain age may recall, although it may seem incredible now, when King Juan Carlos I entered the Olympic stadium to inaugurate the 1992 Games while Els segadors was playing over the loudspeakers. Internal balancing acts were being performed in those days. Olympic diplomacy emerged from a creative tension between the city council and the governments. Independence was an abstraction, almost like now, but we were playing at appearing to be a country, and Barcelona could act as the capital of Catalonia, and the capital of the Catalan language, because for many of us it was much more than a backdrop. This weekend, Catalans find themselves at the epicenter of world politics, but we have been reserved the role of butlers and ushers.I imagine that to the more cosmopolitan readers this kind of complaint will seem unbearably provincial. I apologize. With a final plea: Next week, let us at least enjoy Sant Jordi in peace. We already know that all over the world April 23rd is Book Day, plain and simple. But it turns out that in Catalonia – only in Catalonia – we call this day Sant Jordi, and it is also the day when Barcelona and Catalonia, hand in hand, project themselves to the world. It is only one day; we will see to it that it passes quickly.