Shortly after the 2023-24 election cycle, which granted regional and municipal power to the PSC, I wrote in this newspaper that the Socialists would occupy the center of the Catalan political chessboard for a long time, and that their rivals should concentrate on replacing fragmentation with regrouping, at least from a tactical point of view. I even wondered if Catalan sovereignty had already reached its Alamo. That is, at the point where the only option is to close ranks and dig in against a stronger enemy. At that moment, it seemed to me that this desperate solution was premature, because it meant abandoning decades of inclusive Catalanism with a desire for hegemony.

Nobody likes to speak ill of their country. Me neither. Self-criticism is tedious. It's easier to relativize, to look the other way, to see the speck in someone else's eye and not the log in your own. It's uncomfortable to put your finger on your own wounds. When the wound is open, it hurts. In this article, I do just that: apply a good splash of alcohol to see if our political, social, economic, and cultural body reacts. I confess I don't have much hope. The warning signs are clear.

The lack of international support was one of the reasons the Process failed. Only one world leader defended the October 1st referendum: Nicolás Maduro. The Venezuelan president, ousted by the US, defended the referendum. "Catalonia had the right to express itself democratically," he said on October 1st in his program. Sundays with MaduroInterspersing images of police repression, which he described as "terrible," he had already been photographed with the Catalan independence flag (estelada) at the documentary's presentation in April.Maduro, unwavering loyalty, Directed by Lluís Bartra, a member of the Ítaca collective, a left-wing pro-independence group, the photograph infuriated the PDECat party. "If anyone thinks they're making a difference by having Maduro pose with the Catalan independence flag, they haven't understood anything," warned coordinator Marta Pascal. Eight years later, the figure of Maduro, who repressed the Venezuelan opposition while in power, continues to divide the pro-independence movement. In this sense, Trump's attack on Venezuela has highlighted the division within the pro-independence movement regarding international relations.

The historian Josep Maria Muñoz has just published An infinite sorrow (Arcadia), in which he reviews the last half-century of Catalan politics and Catalonia's failed attempts to reformulate the State with the recognition of its national identity.

A segment of Catalan nationalism desires, or aspires to, the independence of Catalonia. However, after October 2017, the real possibilities of achieving this goal in the short or medium term appear very slim, if not nonexistent, at least in the eyes of the vast majority. Only a dreamer or a delusional person would now repeat the phrase "it's just around the corner." As is well known, history favors the strong, not those who defend, or are convinced they are defending, a just cause. In the current context, in which Catalonia remains a part of Spain, and a very significant part at that, and more than eight years after that failed declaration of independence, it is appropriate, even necessary, to consider what stance should be taken regarding the relationship between the independence movement and the future of the Spanish state, or Spain.

The comparison between Catalan independence and nationalism with the film has long been used as a joke. Life of BrianFrom Monty Python. Specifically, everyone remembers the scene where the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front clash, two fringe groups, difficult to distinguish at first glance, yet who hate each other with a ferocious intensity. "We hate the Romans, but above all we hate the People's Front of Judea." Monty Python aimed their satirical capacity in two directions. On the one hand, against the abuses of power of imperialism and closed systems of thought, such as religions. On the other, against the ineffectiveness and internal miseries (often linked to the egos of the leaders) of movements that aspire to be alternative and transformative. Terry Gilliam is right when he says that, today, a film like Life of Brian It would be met with great hostility: both sides would be caricatured, and immediately both sides would accuse the comics of working for the enemy.

This weekend, after listening to Roger Escapa's interview on Montse Venturós, former mayor of Berga, and read the book almost in one sitting The Republican Rift, by journalists Adrià Santasusagna and Bernat Vilaró, I have understood to what extent the human factor also has a decisive weight in the world of politics and, therefore, in the history of a country.

Ultraconservative nationalism is on the rise. We can quickly see it by mentioning a few names: Trump, Orbán, Milei... It is in this context that historian Eric Storm (Netherlands, 1966) published Nationalisms, a world history (Crítica), a book that doesn't focus on a single country or continent, but rather, as its name suggests, examines the history of nationalism worldwide in an exhaustive work that allows us to draw the similarities that exist between regions and understand why it is advancing worldwide.

Albert Batet, president of the Junts group in the Parliament, yesterday defined Salvador Illa as "the great anesthetizer of Catalonia." It was a way of bringing together in a single adjective the monotonous public personality of the president of the Generalitat (caricatured in the Poland (like someone capable of withering plants just by speaking) and denouncing what Junts calls the "denationalization" of Catalonia.

Eight years after the collapse of 2017, the Catalan independence movement doesn't have one elephant in the room, it has two: Oriol Junqueras and Carles Puigdemont. The continuity of the two main leaders of the Process completely conditions their respective political spaces and prevents the essential catharsis and profound renewal of the entire movement, without which it is impossible to climb out of the electoral, political, discursive, and cultural hole it is in.

The eighth anniversary of October 1st has passed amidst the normalizing silence of socialism, the chronic convalescence of the pro-independence parties that were the protagonists of 2017, nostalgia for what we were, the malaise of a lost opportunity, and the reality of a world at war that now relativizes all those years filled with effort.

Spanish politics has been strongly influenced by violence for years. On October 1st, the police brutally beat citizens in the street as they went to vote in a referendum. A couple of years ago, there were grotesque mobs of far-right supporters on Calle Ferraz, in front of the PSOE headquarters, where physical violence was frequent, although the Popular Party applauded them as exemplary forms of citizen violence. Just over a year ago, Aznar famously said, "Whoever can do, let them do."

The elections of May 12, 2024, marked a turning point in Catalan politics. For the first time since 2012, the self-proclaimed pro-independence parties do not have an absolute majority in the Catalan Parliament. However, this week's Diada, a year after Salvador Illa's investiture—last year's election was immediately after his election—certifies a definitive shift in Catalan politics.

There are times when days seem like years, and other times when years seem like days.

It could happen When the wave was irresistible, when independence was defended by those who don't remember it now. At that time, Pere Navarro's PSC, out of respect for its founding principles and under pressure from its Catalanist wing, presented itself to the electorate proposing a "legal and agreed-upon consultation." Later, it dared to break voting discipline in the Congress of Deputies, in defense of the referendum. Celestino Corbacho called for the re-establishment of the Catalan federation of the PSOE. But in the end, it was Catalanists like Maragall, Elena, and Geli who left, and the party suffered a drain of votes in several directions. Miquel Iceta's PSOE colleagues told him that the State would never negotiate, that matters would be resolved the hard way, and that if both the PSC and (especially) the PSOE didn't get their act together, they would suffer the consequences. Iceta, therefore, returned the party to the constitutional fold.

Without having to go to the extreme of agreeing with what Tony Blair maintained to define the pragmatism of his third way, when he said that "what matters is what works", it is true that in politics they what need one as for being credible. So when the as fail, the what are faltering. And I think this is where the independence movement in Catalonia has settled. that may be more alive than ever and probably those who would like independence have not regressed as significantly as it may seem at first glance... or at the first poll result. But as long as there is no as convincing, a plausible electoral translation of the political project, the that will reasonably remain in a secondary position, awaiting this one as.

The former president has been disappearing from the Catalan political scene and becoming a luxuriously forgotten figure. Sometimes he reappears, but it's more a matter of form than a profound reality. Like Lladró ceramics or retired public officials, he's there and only someone remembers him from time to time, highlighting that some things are conditional on him still being in Waterloo. Even if he does speak out, he means little and has become a dead weight in the country's politics. His rapid move from the crest of a wave to the most humiliating of oblivion shows us that tempus fled and that people's capacity for amnesia is inversely proportional to their willingness to praise mythologized leaders and swear eternal love to them. It is obvious that until the amnesty that some judges resist is applied, he will remain in the way, like a stone in the road that forces walkers to go around in circles, but which is now almost history. Together, however, he remains politically trapped. Although some Puigdemontist leaders appear, the party needs and strives to return to the realpolitik, redo the itinerary of recent years and join CiU, as interest groups demand, and return to worrying about the real world as a conservative alternative linked to old Catalanism, even if the language is sovereignistBut it's necessary, above all, to make this possible, for Puigdemont to be removed from the equation and thus be able to renew faces and policies. Paradoxically, it's the judges who are so bellicose toward the trial who keep them stuck in their 2017 positions.

The independence movement is repeating last year's formula, and on September 11th the mobilization for Catalonia's National Day will once again be decentralized. This year there will be demonstrations in Barcelona, Girona, and Tortosa under the slogan More reasons than ever. Independence. This was announced by the organizers of the Barcelona Palace Plan, who hope to present the demonstration with a "social content" and have presented the defense of language and culture as the main reasons for participating. During the presentation, the president of the ANC, Lluís Llach, called for mobilization so that the Diada may be "a clamor that predicts the definitive resumption" of Catalonia's national liberation and "a celebration of reunion to restart the struggle."

Just in the last ten days, we've learned of the creation of three new political parties in countries we consider "consolidated democracies." The first is in France. François Ruffin has announced the creation of the Debout! party. He comes from the radical left, has been linked to Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise, and positions himself between it and the likely Social Democratic candidate, Raphaël Glucksmann. The second is in the United Kingdom. Jeremy Corbin, former leader of the Labour Party and particularly critical of the current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is forming a new party with a group of MPs gathered under the name Independent Alliance. To complete the picture, in the United States, Elon Musk—who was expected to end up in a bloodbath with Donald Trump—has just announced his new party, America. And this is just a small, early glimpse of what's to come.

The amnesty brings merriment. While Catalonia greets him with distrust—there are still many heads to be sorted out—resentment is surfacing in Madrid. I'll leave aside the ritual shouting of indignant Spanish nationalism and stick with the vanity fair represented by Feijóo and the ineffable Felipe González.