The first major move to try to overcome division within the pro-independence camp after the public disagreements on Catalonia Day took place this Tuesday at the Palau de la Generalitat and served mainly to confirm the gulf separating Catalan president Pere Aragonès's strategy from the Catalan National Assembly's (ANC). The head of the Government has summoned this campaigning organisation, alongside Òmnium Cultural and Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI), to rebuild bridges, but the impression is that it will not be easy to find common ground. The ANC went to the meeting with a proposal under its arm: "making independence effective" in the second half of 2023, an idea that has been automatically dismissed by Aragonès. "The conditions do not exist to move forward with such a proposal, and everybody knows this," said Presidency minister Laura Vilagrà.

This year's Catalonia Day demonstration has become a struggle between the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), with unpredictable results. This Tuesday ERC announced none of its ministers will attend the march organised by the pro-independence organisation, following president Aragonès's footsteps. The decision also deepens the division in government on this issue: ERC's coalition partner Together for Catalonia (JxCat) has announced all its ministers will take part.

The political year 2021-2022, now over, was free of elections, and the three main pro-independence parties used this lull to rethink their respective roadmaps. Republican Left of Catalonia approved its new political strategy in March at a national conference; Together for Catalonia (JxCat) did so even more recently at its July congress. The People's Unity Candidacy (CUP) has not yet finished its congress, but, as advanced by ARA, its national secretariat is already working with a draft that gives a heavy hint of where they will be heading. Comparing all three proposals, the institutional independence movement does not give any sign of being able to resume a certain unitary course after the holidays. Neither in the field of the Independence bid, nor in the field of day-to-day politics.

Together for Catalonia (JxCat) leader Laura Borràs was suspended this Tuesday as an MP and speaker as a result of her indictment in the Institution of Catalan Letters case. (ILC) The parties represented in parliament's governing body, the parliamentary bureau, have decided to apply article 25.4 of the chamber's regulations, which provides for the suspension of parliamentarians appearing in court accused of crimes linked to corruption. Borràs will be tried over alleged crimes of malfeasance and forgery. The prosecution argues that she favoured a friend when she was director of the ICL, splitting contracts to be able to award them without putting them out to tender. However, Borràs claims it is "political repression".

JxCat MP and vice-president Francesc de Dalmases rebuked a FAQS journalist on July 9th after the programme interviewed Catalan Speaker Laura Borràs, Nació Digital and eldiario.es reported and witnesses have confirmed to ARA. According to these sources, Dalmases grabbed the journalist by the wrist and took her to a room where guests usually wait and shouted at her, scolding her over the questions asked on the set about the current court case looking into Borràs's alleged splitting of contracts during her time at the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC). Another FAQS worker followed them when she saw the tension, but they closed the door in her face and she was unable to get in. Inside, in addition to Dalmases and the journalist, was Speaker Borràs, her chief of staff, Salvador Esteve; and another member of her team, Pep Elias.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), based in Strasbourg, has now received appeals from all the political leaders the Spanish Supreme Court imprisoned over the 2017 Independence referendum. This Wednesday the last three were submitted Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) president and former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras and former Catalan ministers Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa. Now it is time to wait for the verdict. The appellants' legal team explained that all the appeals are expected to be grouped together into a single macro-case, and they reckon it will take "at least" two years to know the final outcome.

Former CUP MP Anna Gabriel has returned this Tuesday after almost five years of exile in Switzerland in order to appear before the Spanish Supreme Court (SSC). This was reported by surprise this morning by the court itself in a statement. Gabriel appeared accompanied by her lawyer, Iñigo Iruín Sanz, who also represents the former Catalan minister Meritxell Serret. In fact, Serret was the first exile to return to the country, and Gabriel just the second. After appearing before SSC judge Pablo Llarena, she was summoned for questioning in the near future and was subsequently released. Gabriel plans to return to Switzerland today.

Friday July 15 at the Spanish presidential palace in Madrid. This is the date and place chosen for the meeting between Catalan president Pere Aragonès and Spanish president Pedro Sánchez, in what should be the meeting which definitively restores relations between the two governments. These have been deeply affected by a series of events, most recently the Catalangate spying scandal. The date was decided this Friday in a face-to-face meeting held at the Palau de la Generalitat by Catalan and Spanish Presidency ministers, Laura Vilagrà and Félix Bolaños.

The court case that affects Speaker Laura Borràs starred in today's parliamentary session. The issue was brought up by the PP and Vox, who requested the Speaker's immediate resignation, but the main result is that they have forced president Aragonès to comment on the case during Government questions. The issue is quite thorny for Aragonès, as it strains the relationship between coalition partners ERC and JxCat. Aragonès avoided saying precisely what Borràs should do, but he has sent a first message: "I am sure that everyone will make the decision best suited to their vocation of public service".

Pardons, despite the joy they meant for prisoners and their families, were not an easy dish to digest. The measure of grace allowed them to leave prison, but it did not overrule the Supreme Court sentence, nor their ban from office, nor did it have any impact on the other cases which originated in the Independence bid. The feeling which remained in the pro-independence movement –and among those pardoned– is that the injustice persisted. A year later, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) has decided to hold an event to commemorate the release from prison of political prisoners and has done so both to vindicate the pardoned and demand amnesty and the dialogue table as ways to resolve the political conflict.

With the outbreak of Catalangate, the indignation of the Generalitat led it to announce relations with the Spanish government would remain frozen until it had given explanations and held those responsible to account over mass surveillance of the independence movement. In spite of the fact that relations were never fully interrupted, relations will resume this Wednesday in Madrid with a meeting between the Catalan Presidency minister, Laura Vilagrà, and Spanish Presidency minister, Félix Bolaños. The Generalitat will attend the meeting with a single point on the agenda: "to address the deadlock" in relations between the two governments following Catalangate. This deadlock jeopardises the great strategy of Catalan president Pere Aragonès this term, which is to seek dialogue with the State to try to resolve the political conflict.

Few agreements and lots of criticism is what was expected from the meeting of the Bilateral Infrastructures Committee between the Generalitat and the State held this Friday in Barcelona, and it has delivered. After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting at the Catalan Department of Territory, which neither Spanish nor Catalan ministers attended, the Government has reproached the Spanish executive that "there is no explanation" for the State's investment deficit in Catalonia and demanded a short-term correction. The Spanish government has admitted to the investment deficit and claimed that it is a priority to "reverse the situation", but also claimed that it has sought to create an image of disinvestment "that does not conform to reality".

It only remains to be officially announced, but everyone is clear that the Catalan-Aragonese candidacy for the Winter Olympics will not come to fruition due to the lack of understanding between governments. Faced with this scenario, the Catalan government has announced this Thursday that it is preparing an exclusively Catalan candidacy to opt for the sporting event. However, it does not seem a very viable option because the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) always has the last word on the way the project would be set up and, so far, has always been reluctant to allowing a Catalan only bid to host the Winter Olympics.

Months and months of negotiations and controversy are about to come to an end, and everything points to an acrimonious one at that. The 2030 Olympic Games bid is on the ropes and, as ARA has learnt, this week the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) could backtrack and announce that it is giving up on the bid. Several sources involved in the negotiations –both from Madrid and Catalonia– explain that the end is nigh. It could be announced at a meeting in Barcelona between representatives of the Generalitat and the COE, which have continued to show their understanding despite their disagreements with Aragon. The tension with the Aragonese government is, in fact, the reason behind the failure of the 2030 bid. Although the COE was willing to work with Catalonia alone, the Spanish government has always been reluctant towards this possibility: it is not interested in a political battle between regions that could be perceived to favour the Generalitat. Lambán himself has already let it slip on some occasions and it is a ground for criticism from the right with little under a year to go before the general elections, and Andalusian, local and regional elections coming up in between.

Far from abating, the storm between the Generalitat and the State over the investment crisis is growing in intensity. On a visit to Catalonia, the Spanish Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, had convened an event to announce several infrastructure improvement projects which ended up deriving in the umpteenth conflict between the Spanish and Catalan governments. In spite of the fact that the Generalitat had previously informed it would attend, it ended up standing up the minister to highlight, once again, its dissatisfaction with State's investment in Catalonia. Relations between the two governments are degrading with every passing day, especially taking into account that this is not the only conflictive area: Catalangate spying scandal is yet to be dealt with and no progress has been made on the conflict over sovereignty.

Parliament's Question Time, after the new Catalan language law was passed, had an unexpected protagonist: Gabriel Rufián. The ERC's spokesman in the Spanish Parliament said on Tv3's Planta baixa that it is of "moron" to say that because of a tweet of his the independence of Catalonia was proclaimed, and added that, in any case, "It is the person who proclaimed [independence] who is a moron, not the one who tweets". His statements have caused an uproar in Together for Catalonia (JxCat) and have also caused discomfort within ERC ranks. So much so that Catalan president Pere Aragonès, has disavowed him during Question Time. After the president of JxCat group, Albert Batet, asked him about Rufián, he said: "Not only I do not agree, but I absolutely disagree with him".

The new Catalan language law has been given the green light. The Council of Statutory Guarantees, a Generalitat advisory body, has backed the law agreed by PSC, ERC, JxCat and En Comú to deal with the Catalan High Court sentence which demands 25% of classes in schools be taught in Spanish. The day after the deal was sealed, Vox, Cs and PP forced the law's approval by Parliament to be postponed by asking the Council to give its opinion. The opinion has been adopted unanimously and the Council establishes that the articles questioned by Cs, PP and Vox "do not violate" either the Constitution nor Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy. In order to issue these conclusions, the body has exhausted the period of seven working days granted by its own regulations.

Before bringing the Catalangate crisis to a close, the Generalitat and the Spanish government have clashed again over another major controversy: the State's investment deficit in Catalonia, which a report by the Ministry of Finance has uncovered. This Wednesday Catalan president Pere Aragonès, the vice-president Jordi Puigneró, and Spanish Transport Minister Raquel Sánchez all met to discuss the matter. Although the meeting was not on their agenda, all three coincided in the presentation of a new Google office in Barcelona.

Only one day before the deadline given by the Catalan High Court expired, the Catalan government has passed a bill to respond to the sentence that establishes that 25% of classes must be taught in Spanish.

The Catalan government will postpone the consultation on the Winter Olympics scheduled for July 24 until early autumn, as advanced by Catalunya Ràdio's El Matí and confirmed by ARA. This is because no definitive project has yet been approved by the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE). Later this Friday Catalan Presidency minister Laura Vilagrà will appear before the press to announce the change. Government sources argue that the goal is to hold the vote when the project for the Olympics is complete and the latest disagreements with Aragon on the distribution of the venues mean that the COE may still make changes.