First contact by the President of the Generalitat with all political forces—except Vox—to put an end to the educational crisis. Salvador Illa held a meeting with the parliamentary groups with the goal of reaching a national education pact following the conflict with teachers, the decline in educational results, and the fiasco in the PISA tests. Some of the proposals that the PSC leader has already put on the table is the return of textbooks to classrooms, the imposition of mandatory readings in high school, and, among others, the prohibition of the use of artificial intelligence until the age of fourteen.

Ada Colau is willing to take a step forward within the space to the left of the PSOE ahead of the next general elections. According to knowledgeable sources, the former mayor of Barcelona has changed her mind over the last few weeks and, after ignoring the siren calls of her party colleagues on several occasions, she has agreed to start working to promote a broad left-wing front in the State and to position herself as one of the main leaders, at a time when the post-Yolanda Díaz left is short on references.

Education is immersed in a permanent crisis. After months of teacher strikes and collecting poor student results, it has been joined by the PISA test fiasco. In this context, and after being requested by various parliamentary forces, the President of the Generalitat appeared in Parliament to provide explanations, but he completely exonerated the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, and took refuge in the fact that he had already dismissed the department's number two. "The replacement of the Secretary General of Education has been executed," the socialist leader justified. Nevertheless, all the opposition parliamentary groups have demanded Niubó's resignation.

It matters little the crisis in Ceuta, the decline in the polls, and the judicial investigations that are besieging the president of the Spanish government. The PSC stands by Pedro Sánchez, from the president of the Generalitat to the rank and file. The support is absolute and the audience is noisy. The thousands of attendees at the Rose Festival would not even let the mayor of Gavà, Gemma Badia, who opened the event, speak. "President, president... You are not alone, you are not alone," they shouted. Salvador Illa's speech, which focused largely on praising the PSOE leader, was also accompanied by clamor and applause dedicated above all to the Spanish president. Everyone wanted to hear Pedro. When, at last, his turn came, some people in the audience asked everyone to sit down so they could see him better. The great protagonist of the evening did not disappoint them and promised that he would not throw in the towel: "I will govern until 2031 and beyond." The best, by Tina Turner, and Sánchez said goodbye amidst more chants of "president, president" and "you are not alone, you are not alone".

The municipal elections are approaching, polls predict a substantial growth of the far-right, and security is, more than ever, at the center of the debate. More and more leaders and parties, such as Junts and the PP, are hardening their rhetoric in this field. They want to prevent the debate from remaining solely in the hands of Aliança Catalana and Vox. And the president of the Generalitat and secretary-general of the PSC, Salvador Illa, does not want to be left on the sidelines either. In recent days, the head of the Government has chosen to reinforce messages against crime, especially regarding those offenses that most affect citizens' perception of insecurity.

At the entrance to La Zarza, a small Extremaduran town of about 3,000 inhabitants, there is a large Civil Guard presence. "This isn't normal, do you know what's happening?" asks the taxi driver. They are awaiting the visit of the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to celebrate the National Day of Catalonia there. The whole town is full of it, it is the big event and there is quite a lot of anticipation. "There are posters everywhere and we've been notified through the Town Hall's WhatsApp groups," explains Amelia, a shoemaker at Calzados Moreno. Even so, not a single senyera (Catalan flag) is to be seen and quite a few Spanish flags are flying: the big question is whether the Catalan president—who has come as a sign of the fraternity between the peoples of the State—will be well received.

Salvador Illa has traveled to Extremadura to celebrate the Catalan National Day, seeking to extol the fraternity between the two territories and to vindicate the role of Extremadurans in the construction of Catalonia. The President of the Generalitat has lamented the years of the 'Procés'—in which "some spoke about others," but "some did not speak with others"—and has proclaimed the return of a "solidary" Catalonia that is favorable to understanding with Spain. However, the eternal tensions between the Principality and the rest of the State have resurfaced, and Illa has criticized in statements to the media the opposition of the vast majority of autonomous communities to the new financing, including that of the Junta of Extremadura governed by PP and Vox.

Two years after arriving at the Generalitat, Salvador Illa has returned to appear at the Maritime Museum in an act of great pomp. More than 800 attendees were counted, and the entire Government was there, as well as the main union and business leaders, political representatives of various colors, and prominent members of the country's civil and economic society. The mid-term speech lasted about forty-five minutes – 28 pages of text – and from the Palace, it has been defined as a turning point in the legislature. The head of the executive took the opportunity to repeat some of his political messages, such as "unity" against the "division" of the Procés and opposition to the far-right; and he addressed various current issues, such as housing, infrastructure, immigration, and artificial intelligence. However, Illa is clear about what the target is: ending the educational crisis.

Salvador Illa has wanted to extend the institutional acts of the National Day in Spain and, this year, instead of also celebrating it in Madrid, the president of the Generalitat will travel to Extremadura, a region from which many Catalans originate. Government sources explain that the intention of the socialist leader in this trip on the upcoming September 16 and 17 is to vindicate "that which unites both territories, as well as the historical, family and cultural ties and bonds that unite Catalonia and Extremadura".

The independence movement wants to turn the page on years of pessimism and is looking for the spark to revive the movement. Both the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural agree that the moment could be the tenth anniversary of the referendum of October 1, 2017. With this date in mind, the president of the ANC, Josep Vila, has called on civil independence organizations in the coming weeks to a summit "open to everyone" – except for political parties – to begin preparing a large demonstration for the autumn of next year. "It must signify the trigger for a new, strong, and determined push for independence," the independence leader proclaimed before a packed Plaça Catalunya.

Salvador Illa has once again launched a message against xenophobic rhetoric and the political polarization that stems from it. In the institutional message for the National Day, the president of the Generalitat has once again reclaimed a "united" Catalonia, especially in the face of the rise of the far-right – both Vox and Aliança Catalana – and has warned that "in our home, there is no room for hate." Thus, the socialist president has called to "continue being one single people" and to maintain the "admirable capacity" to make people arriving from Andalusia, Extremadura, Morocco, and Colombia feel like "full-fledged Catalans." "No one is more Catalan than anyone else. We are all Catalonia," insisted Illa, in an institutional message from the Palau de la Generalitat.

The Supreme Court considers that what is known as the Democratic Memory Law "generates a well-founded, real, and serious danger of potentially seriously affecting the objectivity and transparency of the electoral process," which could cause "irreversible damage" to the elections and, therefore, to an "essential element for the rule of law." The high court validates one by one the suspicions of the PP and Vox, which have long claimed that the Spanish government intends to manipulate the upcoming Spanish elections by granting nationality on a massive scale to relatives of republican exiles, especially in South America. "There is a risk of altering the electoral census through an exceptional increase in the number of new registrants in the electoral census of absent residents (CERA)," adds the interlocutory order –published this Thursday–, which provisionally suspends the registration process for the CERA until the challenge filed by the right-wing parties is resolved.

People of all sensibilities united with one goal: to organize without incident the first authorized demonstration after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco on the National Day of Catalonia. Fifty years ago, on September 11, 1976, figures from the PSUC, from Jordi Pujol's circle, from the pro-independence republicanism, and, among many others, from socialism set aside their differences to take a giant step in the national and democratic freedoms of the country. A spirit, that of democratic unity, which the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has now set as a model in the face of the rise of the far-right, both Spanish and Catalan.

Salvador Illa has been mirroring himself in Josep Tarradellas since he arrived at the Generalitat. He is, surely, the Catalan political leader he has cited the most. Not because of his more pro-independence beginnings, but because of his role in the Transition and his ability to get a large part of the Catalan political spectrum to understand each other to configure Catalan autonomy. An obsession that the socialist leader has channeled into the inauguration of the events to commemorate the fifty years since the republican leader's return to Catalonia and his famous "Citizens of Catalonia, I am here" in October 1977.

Salvador Illa arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat with the motto of "uniting and serving". To leave behind once and for all the years of the 'Procés', which he considers "divided" the country, and to dedicate himself above all to the management of the Catalan administration. These were supposed to be his main strengths. Halfway through the term, nothing suggests that the pro-sovereignty aspirations are reviving, but he has faced one crisis after another and has already suffered –for the moment– the farewell of a minister and three general secretaries in recent weeks (two just this week). And this start of the school year, which began with an important photo for Illa with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, also does not augur a calm second half of the term, which will be marked by the municipal elections and the shadow of electoral polls showing a PSC stalled or even with a slight loss of support.

Judge Manuel Marchena used the concept of environmental violence for the first time against four of the protesters who surrounded Parliament in 2011 to try to obstruct the passage of deputies when the budgets consolidating the cuts were to be approved. None of them committed a violent act, but they were sentenced to three years in prison for the mere fact of attending a demonstration in which crimes could have been committed. Once the foundations were laid, Marchena himself used "environmental violence" to justify the sentence against the leaders of the Procés.

The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, have met with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Kyiv. Illa conveyed to him his "commitment" and "solidarity" on behalf of Catalonia, and "showed his support" in the war against the Russian invasion, Ukraine's potential future accession to the European Union, and the potential use of frozen Russian assets located within EU territory for the reconstruction of his country. "It has been a very fruitful meeting in which we were able to express not only the desire to cooperate, but also the desire to learn from a country that has shown a resilience that I believe must be highly valued," the Catalan leader remarked.

The European Union repeats like a mantra that Morocco is a reliable partner and, despite growing suspicions about Rabat's involvement in the migration crisis in Ceuta, it has treaded carefully when it comes to making any kind of statement that could anger the Moroccan regime. Community sources avoid reacting to the possible link between the Mohamed VI regime and the massive entry of immigrants into the autonomous city and limit themselves to responding that it is "an internal affair" that must be clarified by the Spanish authorities.

The Spanish government has again requested to debate the official status of Catalan, Galician, and Basque in the Council of the European Union, but now links it to the expansion of the European bloc and, therefore, to the potential entry of new member states. Diplomatic sources explain that Spain's request is to include a point on the agenda of the General Affairs Council — a meeting of EU ministers and Foreign Affairs — on September 22 that will be titled "Official Languages and Enlargement," and the intention is to ensure that if new countries, such as Albania or Montenegro, join the European club, advantage is taken to make Catalan, Galician, and Basque official, along with Albanian and Montenegrin.

The Government will travel to the Catalanism of the transition for the Diada. The spokesperson for the executive, Sílvia Paneque, announced this Tuesday that the Generalitat will this year pay tribute to the "spirit" of the commemoration of September 11, 1976 in Sant Boi de Llobregat, when "unity in diversity" reigned and the longing to be "one people". Thus, the Government wants to leave behind the national Diadas of the Procés and, in fact, Paneque lamented that the PSC has found itself "very alone" in the "great house of Catalanism" in recent years.