Recovering the unity of action to force the State to lift the veto on the referendum and put an end to repression. This is, one year after the elections of February 14, Catalan president Pere Aragonès's recipe in the face of the division of the pro-independence majority and the Spanish government's procrastination in dealing with the political conflict. Before more than 400 guests in the oval room of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the leader of the Catalan Government has delivered a speech in which he admitted that the dialogue is in a moment of "blockage" and has called for "cohesion" within the independence movement to activate "all the mechanisms of pressure" against the State. The objective: "To make amnesty and self-determination inevitable".

When politics becomes Senyor Esteve's Sunday afternoon, going through bills and invoices, the dangerous temptation to walk away grows. The first session of the investiture debate of Pere Aragonès ended up failing, as expected after Junts announced its abstention. The tone of the interventions distances the possibility of a coalition agreement in the near future and spreads the feeling that the level of politics continues in free fall.

Laura Borràs is already the new the Catalan Parliament's new Speaker. The Junts per Catalunya candidate takes over from Roger Torrent after being chosen by a majority of votes in the second vote to elect the presidency, with the support of the deputies of Junts and Esquerra. The CUP has chosen not to support her, but has ceded a vote to JxCat MP Lluís Puig, exiled in Belgium, "out of anti-repressive solidarity", since he was not allowed to vote remotely. After Borràs was voted in as speaker, Anna Caula (ERC) were elected as first vice-speaker and Eva Granados (PSC) as second vice-president. Then came the vote for the other members of the parliamentary bureau, which were won by Ferran Pedret (PSC), Jaume Alonso Cuevillas (JxCat), Rubén Wagensberg (ERC) and Pau Juvillà (CUP). Overall, supporters of independence make up five of seven of the seven members.

Manning polling stations was one of the main issues in the days prior to the Catalan elections. The number of applications to be exempt from electoral duty multiplied to the point that almost half of the people who had been called up requested a dispensation. Despite this, all polling stations ended up having a president and two members as required by law, and the strict health protocol was followed in order to make sure the vote went ahead. The Ministry of Health has reviewed the incidence that the election day had among the members of polling stations and the conclusions are the same as for the population as a whole: the elections did not affect the number of cases. Of a sample of 18,000 people tested (a total of 27,000 people were needed at polling stations) only 37 tested positive in the following ten days, as reported on Tuesday by the Secretary of Public Health, Josep Maria Argimon.

The CUP has shown again today its willingness to assume the presidency of the Parliament, provided that a programmatic agreement is closed with ERC and JxCat. In a press conference after the political council, where it has been discussed, but not voted, the possibility that the cupaires enter in the new government or preside over the Catalan chamber, the deputy Carles Riera has recognized the importance that the Bureau will have in fulfilling the " goals of the legislature ". "The Parliamentary Bureau will have a fundamental role in this legislature to prevent the extreme right from spreading its hate speech, to guarantee sovereignty and that everything can be debated and discussed without restrictions from the TC (High Court), and we are willing to assume all the responsibilities, but it will never be an exchange of chairs", said the number 2 of the candidacy.

One only has to have followed Catalan politics in recent years to know the importance that the composition of the board of the Parliament has taken. Debates such as those of 6 and 7 September 2017 to push through the disconnection laws, or marathon meetings on whether or not to admit a motion for a resolution under the scrutiny of the Constitutional Court, have been the focus of the political chronicles, and have given even more relevance to a vote - the first of the legislature - which for many years was seen as a mere formality that was more ceremonial than political. This time around it will be no different, and the election of the members of the presiding committee - which will have to take place on 12 March at the latest - has been playing a key role in the negotiations for the investiture for days now. What happens that day in Parliament will serve as a touchstone for the chances of success of the ERC's presidential candidate, Pere Aragonès.

CUP is not bluffing. They want to take advantage of the good hand dealt to them by the nine MPs they obtained in the elections and which have made them decisive for the investment of a new president. It has become known to ARA that CUP's demand to be in charge of the second most important institution in Catalonia is more important than entering the executive, and is a condition sine qua non to invest ERC's candidate, Pere Aragonès. In fact, the CUP has already suggested two names to command the institution: Dolors Sabater and Carles Riera.

Article by Grup Pròleg*

ERC and En Comú have officially begun contacts on Monday for the formation of government. After the meeting, in a communiqué, both formations have agreed that it is necessary to "start a new phase" in Catalonia and to "reinforce the policies of the left". They have shared that the priorities of the next executive are reconstruction, social rescue and resolving the conflict between Catalonia and the State. Likewise, they have agreed to hold new meetings in the near future to try to explore "agreements".

Next Friday will mark a year since the first and only meeting so far of the negotiating table, the first attempt by the Catalan administration -known as Generalitat- and the Spanish government to find a negotiated solution to the Catalan political conflict. The staging and the media expectation were those of the great occasions, but it did not go beyond this: a single meeting in 365 days which bore no fruit. In spite of everything, the election results of February 14 provide an opportunity to reactivate the negotiating table.

Next Sunday Catalonia will have been without a president for five months. The disqualification of Quim Torra by order of the High Court left the command of the Generalitat vacant, which since then has been piloted on an interim basis by the duo formed by the Minister of the Presidency, Meritxell Budó, and the vice-president, Pere Aragonès. A week ago, the polls offered the ERC national coordinator the possibility of finally assuming the functions of president in full, but in order to clear the remaining path to the office of the Palau de la Generalitat, Aragonès first needs the investiture negotiations with JxCat and the CUP to go ahead. The door of the comuns, which the republicans want to keep open, does not currently seem to lead to the presidency.

Good old Groucho Marx used to say that it wasn't politics that made strange bedfellows, but marriage. As always, he was right, but this is not today's topic. The subject is the complex politics of alliances that is straining Spanish politics and the no less bizarre alliances that may be forged in Catalonia in the coming weeks and their dangerous consequences. Which partners will form the government of Catalonia at a time when the worst economic crisis is still in pandemic proportions after a year of exhaustion, with political prisoners and young people sitting on a powder keg?

The most iconic rally of Vox's election campaign was the one in Vic, and not because of what was said, but because of the insults, the throwing of objects and the clashes with the police by groups of anti-fascists protesting against the presence of the far-right. In Vic, Vox was not looking for votes. To be more precise, it did not intend to convince the vigatans (it obtained 3.7% of the votes), but it did want to take advantage of images that would help it to convince Catalans in other places. It is not the only party that appeals eminently to feelings, but it is one of those that most dominates this way of doing politics, in its case basically by standing against many things: anti-independence, anti-irregular immigration, anti-linguistic immersion...

The rise of the far right in state institutions is a very recent phenomenon. Until 2018 it did not even have a presence. Vox made its debut in Andalusia, where its xenophobic discourse and apparently simple solutions to complex problems seduced almost 400,000 Andalusians. And with the PP and Cs thirsty to unseat the PSOE from the government after forty years, the cordon sanitaire was not even considered. Since then, the triple right has also been at work in the regional governments of Madrid and Murcia, always with Vox outside the cabinet but as an indispensable partner. There are now 11 regional parliaments with a far-right presence, and on 14 February Catalonia left the group of those that are still holding on without them, including Galicia, Navarre, the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Castile-La Mancha and La Rioja. Vox is the fourth force and could aspire to a place at the Parliamentary table, but the cordon sanitaire that all the parties - except, once again, PP and Cs - propose makes it practically impossible. The Catalan parties now face a dilemma that has marked politics for years in many European states, which are torn between sharing power with the extreme right and the cordon sanitaire to isolate it.

The PSC won the 14-F elections in votes and tied with ERC in seats. But in which municipalities did each force have more voters? And within these municipalities, how was the vote distributed by streets? In these interactive maps you can see which has been the first and second most voted party in each of the 5,083 census sections in which Catalonia has been divided for these elections.

A demonstration has been called to urge pro-independence parties to close an investiture agreement. The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) wants a "pro-independence government now", and has called on people to take to the streets on Sunday 28 February to demand it. "We want to celebrate that we have overcome the barrier of 50% of the votes and encourage pro-independence parties to form a Government," said the president of the ANC, Elisenda Paluzie, on Friday. Paluzie has also reported that the demonstration will happen in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona at 12 noon and, meanwhile, has encouraged ANC sympathisers to participate in the protests in support of Pablo Hasél. However, beyond "encouraging" pro-independence groups to form a government, there is also a pressure factor. "We want concrete actions that lead to independence," insisted Paluzie. That is, for the ANC, not only parties that "call themselves pro-independence" are needed, but also a government that "moves towards independence". How? According to Paluzie, with actions and not words, such as "promoting fiscal sovereignty" or getting rid of "the big oligopolies", without renouncing to a "necessary disobedience".

Esquerra and Junts per Catalunya have met today to agree on the investiture of current vice president Pere Aragonès, as ARA has found out and the parties have later confirmed in a statement. Both government partners have assessed the first meeting after the elections as very "positive", stressing the value of pro-independence parties' absolute majority in votes and seats.

The role that the Mossos d'Esquadra are playing in the protests against the imprisonment of Pablo Hasél has burst into the investiture negotiations, and not exactly to facilitate a quick agreement. The CUP, a key actor to trigger the legislature, is pushing for resignations and substantial changes in the Ministry of Home Affairs, while JxCat and ERC make balances. The former because they currently run the department - despite having criticised the police action -, and the latter because they are in pole position to get Pere Aragonès to be the next president of the Generalitat and want as little noise as possible. Aragonès has spoken on the issue this Friday. On the one hand, he has defended the work of the police force. On the other, he has announced "changes" in this area when the new Government is constituted.

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont met presidential candidate, Laura Borràs, in Belgium this Thursday to analyse the electoral results and the formation of a government with ERC. Junts hopes to translate the pro-independence absolute majority in the Parliament into a "strong" executive and to agree on a shared strategy to continue with the Independence bid. As explained by the party's secretary general, Jordi Sànchez, in an interview with ARA, they look to Pere Aragonès, as the most voted candidate within the independence movement, to lead the formation of the executive, but advocate reaching agreements on what to do in this legislature and also in the Spanish Parliament.