The total amnesty for the leaders and those prosecuted in the 'Procés' is excellent news that puts an end, not certainly to the political conflict between Catalonia and Spain, but to one of the darkest episodes in the current Spanish democratic era. The amnesty is for those who have suffered judicial, police, political, and media persecution for nine years, but it is above all an amnesty that the Spanish state grants to itself, after its powers have incurred the crime of crimes against democracy by persecuting citizens for ideological reasons. Beating citizens on public roads, imprisoning civic and political leaders, or forcing them into exile, criminalizing ideas, is incompatible with democracy and, nevertheless, it is exactly what happened in the Spanish state in 2017 and thereafter. If there was a coup d'état in Spain, it was, as has been said and repeated, the one that began in 2010 with the Constitutional Court's ruling against the Statute and extended until this past Monday, when finally the stage of political repression against the Catalan independence movement could be considered closed. A coup d'état carried out from the State and by servants of the State, at all levels of power: from the police to the monarchy, passing through the judges and prosecutors (Llarenas, Marchenas, Lamelas, Zaragozas, Madrigals) who have taken an active part in a long and unfortunate history of lawfare or dirty judicial war, naturally passing also through all the political leaders who in some way have promoted or given cover to the absurdity. The Spanish state has gambled its democratic credibility, already in itself quite inconsistent, and reached the point of descending to the category of flawed democracy (instead of the one for full democracy, where it is usually found) in the year 2021 in the Democracy Index of The Economist. That those responsible for all this now emerge with complete impunity is nothing short of unjust, and gives an effectively melancholy varnish to the moment the amnesty is applied.

Judicial timelines dictated that the final session of the trial against the national police officers who blinded the eye of the activist Roger Español would be held on October 1st, seven years after the day of the referendum in which the pro-independence activist was mutilated. The session began with a delay: it was suspended until one in the afternoon because the accused inspector had alleged "a health problem" and resumed when he returned from the hospital. All this has caused the trial to finally end on Friday. Thursday's session included statements from the inspector in charge of the operation, two sub-inspectors, and the officer who fired at Español. However, these statements were overshadowed by the final speech of Español's defense, which even resorted to a sentence by Manuel Marchena and another handed down for the Esther Quintana case, to dismantle the police version of 1-O.

Steps forward for the amnesty law, even though two years later it has still not benefited four out of every ten prosecuted independence supporters. If in the month of June the rule had stalled at half, in recent weeks –after the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)– things are accelerating, according to data collected by Alerta Solidària. Specifically, 62% of independence supporters have already been amnestied, although, curiously, the list still does not include either the thirty people prosecuted at the Court of Auditors or the twelve members of the CDR accused of terrorism, the two cases in which the CJEU explicitly validated the measure of grace. Next week it is expected that the Constitutional Court (TC) will also take a decisive step so that Carles Puigdemont and the ministers of his Government pursued for embezzlement are amnestied.

On the way back from the Diada celebration in Barcelona, I heard that the protesters were making the same demographic summary: there were people over 50 and under 25. And the presence of young people is interpreted as a green shoot that dispels the idea that the end of the 2017 process created a cut that had no tail behind it.It helps that the failure of the 2017 process objective, plus the subsequent state repression and the division of the parties, apart from leaving the Government in the hands of the PSC, has shifted the center of political debate in Catalonia, so that problems such as the lack of housing, insecurity on the streets, the poor service of the suburban trains (Rodalies), strikes in Education, Healthcare or the farmers' protests, the use of the language... all this has ended up filling the voting intention polls for Aliança Catalana, which mimics the messages of the entire European far-right: there are groups impossible to incorporate into Catalan identity, who furthermore commit crimes and take the aid, with the approval of traditional parties, some corrupt and all clinging to their seats. And so, the lifelong debate, the Catalonia-Spain one, is replaced by the local version of a darker and more authoritarian global agenda. Yes, we have a debate about the regional financing system or the application of the amnesty, but the protest vote, of radical change, is shifting, polls say, towards Aliança Catalana, hand in hand with the identity vote in a radical sense (particularly Islamophobic, as we heard in the party's speeches at the Diada) and the punishment vote against the institutions.Where do these votes come from? Many of them come from the sovereignty movement, especially from Junts, and now Vox intends to attract the most Spanish-leaning disenchanted vote from the PSC, also taking advantage of the fact that it has now reached the middle of the legislative term with serious management problems in all the departments most important in terms of budget and impact on the lives of the majority. At the end of the week, Santiago Abascal will come to Catalonia to open the political season, taking advantage of the fact that Aliança Catalana has placed at the center the debate on the favorite topic they share, which is immigration. For Vox, the enemies are immigration and Sánchez, who does not defend Spain's borders. And for Aliança Catalana, the enemies are immigration and the rest of the parties, which do not defend security, public services; that is to say, Catalan identity and Western identity.

There are days that mark a before and an after in political and social terms. And the Eleventh of September 1901, 125 years ago now, was a turning point for a holiday that was navigating in irrelevance but that gained momentum due to the arrests following a floral offering at the monument to Rafael Casanova. "Without the events of 1901, there would be no modern independence movement," emphasizes Oriol Falguera, president of the Reeixida Foundation, in conversation with ARA. This organization, in fact, celebrated the anniversary of the first combative Diada last week at the Museum of History of Catalonia and this Thursday at an event in the Parliament with the president of the chamber, Josep Rull, which was attended by relatives of those arrested during that Diada. Furthermore, this Eleventh of September, at 11 p.m., Reeixida recreated the events with people dressed in period clothing and relatives of those arrested through the streets of Barcelona.

All Catalanist parties, from the PSC to the CUP, have conspired this Diada to be a dam against the far-right, accepting that Catalonia has definitely settled into a new political paradigm. A scenario that is not new in Europe and which demoscopy in our country has been predicting for months. For this reason, the political messages of this September 11th have had a common denominator: to call on citizens to reject all the messages of hatred propagated by the far-right and to uphold the democratic values of that "One single people" that political Catalanism has always claimed. However, the polls reflect a distance between what the traditional parties proclaim and what the citizens are willing to vote for – a poll by El Mundo this Friday once again places Aliança Catalana as the second force–. In fact, the growth of Sílvia Orriols' party strains an independence movement that this September 11th has returned to the streets and has timidly broken a trend of demobilization that it has been dragging along at least since 2023.

Although it was not seen on television, the estelades filled the stands of the Camp Nou in the match two weeks ago against Athletic Club. An image that had not been seen in the blue and garnet stadium for some time and that the independence movement has claimed as one of the green shoots of a new beginning that some of its ideologues are beginning to glimpse in the short term. The latest barometer from the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO), published in June, broke a worrying dynamic for the yes vote: it marked the best percentage (45%) since March 2019, six points more than a few months ago. And this same week, all the presidents of the ANC have put aside their disagreements to be photographed together, claiming a Diada of unity.

Four voices separated by little more than four years –two political scientists aged 24 and 22, a 23-year-old nurse, and a 26-year-old psychologist– were teenagers when they lived through the 'Procés'. Now, in perspective, they debate it based on five photographs that they reveal during a discussion on the ARA set: the coexistence of flags, the pro-independence demonstrations of September 11th, the role of Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, the presidency of Salvador Illa, and the legacy of former president Jordi Pujol. The journey outlines the evolution of a movement that today, nine years after October 1st, is torn between nostalgia and the search for a new narrative.

Barça's decision to suspend the tribute to the world champions has caused an earthquake on social media and a certain degree of discomfort in some Catalan press. Only this explains, for example, that this topic does not appear on the cover of the "Sport and be frankly hidden in the of World Sport. In programs like The Jugones beach bar, as was to be expected, they jumped on it and accused Joan Laporta of mixing politics and sport, of dividing Barcelonismo, and of positioning himself in favor of the independentists. And well, there are several reflections to be made here.

Until this Tuesday, and because the press asked him about it, the Government had not commented on the police aggression against a Catalan minor who was carrying an estelada last Sunday evening, prior to the match between Elche and Barça. "From the Government we condemn the use of this violence, in light of the images we have all seen, of the aggression against this young man," stated the executive's spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, at the press conference following the executive council meeting. Thus, Salvador Illa's government has regretted this police action and has emphasized the need for it to be investigated. In parallel, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, defended this Tuesday that the internal ex officio investigation into the National Police is what "is appropriate" and that the corps "is the first interested party in analyzing and excluding any action that implies a minimum deviation from proportionality" in the use of force.

The former Minister of Culture and Junts deputy in Parliament Lluís Puig (Terrassa, 1959) speaks to ARA, coinciding with the celebration of the Catalan Summer University in Prada. He lives in exile in Northern Catalonia.

The president of the governing board of the Catalan Summer University (UCE), Jordi Casassas (Barcelona, 1948), speaks to ARA to review this year's edition.

The enemies of Catalonia and the cause of its freedom, as well as the reasons for the Principality's various defeats throughout history, such as in the War of Succession, have been detailed this Friday by the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, at the Catalan Summer University in Prada de Conflent. The republican leader reviewed the reasons for the defeats against Castile and related them to the struggle in recent years with the 'Procés'. Who today opposes the independence aspirations of some Catalans? Is the PSC part of this bloc? Junqueras dodged the questions posed to him in Prada, eventually resorting to a name: "For example, Albert Rivera." Seven years after his resignation and the dismantling of Ciutadans, Junqueras still remembers the orange party and its most representative leader as a symbol of anti-Catalonia, of the internal enemy that hinders progress and makes national liberation difficult.

Cristòfol Soler was a very young deputy with the PP, at only 26 years old, in 1982; he later became the Balearic Minister of Economy, President of the Parliament and, finally, President of the Balearic Government, but he only held the position for ten months, between 1995 and 1996, the shortest in history. He replaced Gabriel Cañellas and lasted very little, but the most surprising thing was when, in the midst of the Process, he declared himself an independentist and presided over the Sovereign Assembly of Mallorca, of which he is still a member. From Prada de Conflent, where Soler attended a round table at the Catalan Summer University, he speaks to ARA and warns that "there are no regionalists left in the PP". In his opinion, what is being done by the executive of the popular Marga Prohens would not be regionalism at any time, despite the autochthonous legacy that from the Balearic PP they say they defend.

Without a shadow of a doubt: Junts should not make a pact with Aliança Catalana, according to its general secretary. Jordi Turull, in fact, goes further and proposes a total "battle" against the "discourse of hate" of the formation led by Sílvia Orriols. He presented this on Wednesday from Prada de Conflent as a recipe for combating the far-right, which also includes a "battle of values" and "ethical" against a party with which he said he wants nothing to do. Despite the words of some former convergent leader like David Madí, who calls for reaching agreements with the radical right – an idea not dismissed by some in the local sphere – Turull was emphatic and warned of the "harmful effects" of the growth of the Catalan and Spanish far-right. "The nation sees itself threatened, but [the threat] always came from outside, for the first time it comes from within with hatred towards the different," he stated.

After the Catalan independence process and the division of recent years, the recovery and how to move forward in the future have been the most repeated themes. This Tuesday, at the Catalan University of Summer in Prada, a tribute was paid to the former president of Òmnium, Muriel Casals, ten years after her death. The current president of the entity, Xavier Antich, the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, and the former president of the Parliament and of the ANC, Carme Forcadell, have performed a kind of "beatification" of Casals' figure and have prescribed her as a remedy to "raise the independence movement," regain unity, and combat "the hatred" of the far-right party Aliança Catalana, led by Sílvia Orriols.

The delivery of the Princess of Girona awards, by the monarchical foundation of the same name, entails the presence in Catalonia of the king, the princess, and the infanta. And when Felipe VI arrived this Tuesday in front of the Liceu – because he is banned in Girona – the ANC's action to try to boycott the head of state's visit took place: a group of about a hundred activists, camouflaged by a mass of umbrellas in the style of the Roman Empire's tortoise formation, threw rubber balls at him, but they did not reach their target by many meters and the monarch did not even notice. A banner with the king upside down could be seen on the building opposite the Liceu.

Ten months before the next municipal elections, the pro-independence tripartite that governed Girona since 2023 has come to an end. After a harsh article published on Sunday, in which the deputy mayor and candidate for re-election for Junts, Gemma Geis, had already anticipated that her "patience" had run out, the party of Carles Puigdemont has made the decision to leave the executive and move to the opposition. Geis announced this Tuesday morning at a press conference, accompanied by the party's six councilors. "Our degree of demand is very high and Girona deserves more," she stated.

Any policy driven by nostalgia is doomed to failure. We observe the temptation of nostalgia throughout Europe, including in Catalonia. It is a form of escape from reality and is not an attitude exclusive to far-right formations. The paradox is that this drift reaches us when the present demands greater capacity to rethink changes, to prevent the future from becoming only threat and fear. And it is time to rethink because it is time to rebuild. The hour of a reconstruction policy arrives. Without solemnity, but with commitment, with a vocation to conjure the mixture of irrationalism and fatalism that fertilizes the ground for anti-politics and, in turn, for populist and reactionary options.We are experiencing collective discouragement and democratic malaise that call for a combination of self-criticism, listening, and reform. Self-criticism of some premises that have underpinned basic policies to date, listening to citizens who express various forms of disaffection towards institutions, and decisive reform in those areas where problems demand a change of focus, not just the allocation of more resources. From here, we will have to assume the risk of reconstruction, especially on two overlapping fronts.First of all, a national reconstruction, indispensable after the stage of the sovereignist process, which ended badly as long as it is not possible to ask again —without baton blows— what citizenship wants. But today's Catalonia is not that of the post-civil war, nor that of the eighties, nor even that of the 92 Games or the events of 2017. Three issues that are part of the daily agenda clearly show this: housing, economic model, and language. The world of Jordi Pujol and Pasqual Maragall —to name the two most important Catalan leaders of the second half of the 20th century— no longer exists, nor will it return. It remains basic to assume the framework of "Catalonia, one people", but this cannot be used to stop analyzing the great social transformations that challenge us.

The latest CEO study has put numbers to the conversations we've all heard at some point, which anticipate an extraordinary leap for Aliança Catalana in Parliament. When a party's main message is as basic as "Save Catalonia" and it's formulated by a leader who is not at all empathetic, at the head of an unknown team, and yet its electoral expectations soar, it means it has connected with the real or suggested discontents of many people, regarding street insecurity, Islamic radicalism, "massive" immigration, the emigration of well-prepared young Catalans, the decline of the language, or fiscal plundering. And, pay attention, because the diagnosis has found a new centrality where voters from the integrationist Catalanism of Junts and Convergència to the bull-and-Legion Spanish nationalists of Vox have come to coincide. One flag unites them: Islamophobia.