The leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have staged a common front in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, to intensify pressure on London for independence. "Westminster's time is running out," says a joint statement signed by the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, of the Scottish National Party (SNP); the First Minister of Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth, of Plaid Cymru, and the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, of Sinn Féin.

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.

The afternoon begins dully with a heat that only seems tolerable because the permanent state of exception of the climate has forced us to lower our standards. It is a public holiday Friday and Catalan politics has accumulated so many years of apathy that I admit I arrive loaded with preventive pessimism at Plaça Universitat, and I sink into prejudice when I find the ANC stalls full of white hair. Then I cling to the lifeline of a group of teenagers with estelades who pass by me. They are shy, they explain to me that they have come down by train from Os de Balaguer and say they don't know much about politics. To shake them up a bit, I ask them to compare this Diada with the previous ones they have experienced, and they all agree on one point: "There are more young people than ever." As I get closer to the heart of the matter, I realize they are absolutely right: I haven't missed a single protest since 2012 and I had never seen so many young people. Although the rational part of my brain knows that the absolute number cannot be compared to that of the epic years, the impression of seeing a proportion of young people higher than that of older people completely changes the emotional color of the Diada.

We offer you a live graphic follow-up of the National Day of Catalonia, which graphically complements the important live coverage by ARAARA's live coverage. The day starts early in the morning with the traditional floral offerings at the Rafael Casanova monument and commemorations throughout the country. Throughout the day, this gallery will collect the most outstanding moments from the afternoon mobilizations called by pro-independence entities, the institutional acts, and the cultural and musical events that will close the National Day. A living photographic look that will be updated minute by minute from the field by ARA's photographers.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Few political formulas have had such a long life and such great force as these words from the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Approved on July 4, 1776, they represent a historical break: power could not derive from blood, from the crown, or from divine will, but from the rights of individuals and the consent of the governed.

Days before July 4, 1776, Benjamin Franklin invited twenty-one chiefs of the Iroquois nations to Philadelphia. These leaders represented the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a league of six Indigenous nations whose territories spanned part of what is now New York, Quebec, and Ontario. The Indigenous delegates were lodged on the second floor of the Pennsylvania State House—now known as Independence Hall—directly above the room where the U.S. Declaration of Independence was about to be signed.

"I am an independentist, but when Spain plays I want them to win for the Barça players and for Catalans". This phrase often echoes on our terraces from friends, acquaintances, or even some political party members. There are also those who say: "I don't feel Spanish, but I like their football". This Sunday, in the Spain - Saudi Arabia match on the second day of the World Cup, many Catalans will once again experience this apparent contradiction: separating their disaffection towards the State from the euphoria for the goals of Luis de la Fuente's team. The ball seems to have the ability to blur strongly defined ideological lines in ninety minutes.

"Today Lithuania, tomorrow Catalonia". Paintings with this slogan appeared all over Catalonia Aliança Catalana now introduces a new player: Rhodesia. What is now Zimbabwe was an unrecognized state, governed by a white minority, which emerged when it unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965 to avoid a black majority government, with the end of colonization. The independence, which was effective from 1965 to 1979, aimed to perpetuate the power of the 240,000 white people who lived there versus the 4.5 million Africans, who did not have the right to vote and from whom they took their land, which caused a bloody conflict that lasted a decade.

1. A possible summary of the situation. Spain has told Catalonia that it will never have independence. Judicial, police, political, and media repression made that abundantly clear, and we are still paying the price. And a referendum on self-determination? Never. The obtuse State has also told us that quite plainly. And a special economic agreement, at least? Never. They should have asked for it back then, as the Basques and Navarrese did. And special funding, then? Never. We have already seen how the extreme right, Feijóo's lying right wing, and the... have responded in a cascade. males The most re-established members of the PSOE. If necessary, then, and so as not to offend so many people, we'll call it special funding, even though it isn't. Right? Not quite. We already saw this Sunday the response from the presidents of the autonomous communities where the PP governs. They prefer to give up billions of euros for services for their people rather than allow Catalonia to live somewhat better. That's how absurd and how outrageous it is. And, while we're at it, how about a principle of ordinality? Not a chance. Theory can withstand anything, but in practice, Spain doesn't want to allow a system of solidarity where the third-highest contributor is the third-highest recipient. Why? Because it's not fair to say that Catalonia could ever benefit from anything. Faced with the "everyone wins" argument that Minister Montero uses to defend the new funding model, the Socialist president of Castilla-La Mancha is calling for "the complete abandonment of this attempt at blackmail and granting privileges to the separatists." What privileges?

At the heart of the independence movement was the desire to relegate identity-based and victim-blaming nationalism—in other words, the worst face of Pujolism, the Ferrussola face—to the background. The key contribution in this regard, from the intellectual sphere, came from the philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventós, with his work From identity to independence, from 1999, a decade before the start of the Process. That book had a foreword by his friend Pasqual Maragall, who still declared himself a federalist. Over the years, Rubert de Ventós's essay would end up leading Maragallism and part of the PSC to pro-sovereignty positions.

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.

From Cornellà del Terri, where former president Carles Puigdemont voted on 1-O, Junts held its event this Tuesday night to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the October 1 referendum. Under the slogan "Committed to 1-O," the Junts members demanded "the validity of the referendum mandate" after the independence movement lost its majority in the Catalan Parliament and have called for "finishing the job." To this end, Puigdemont called for "protection" of the formula that made 1-O possible and claimed three "ingredients" that, in his opinion, made it possible: unity, transversality—without considering "what those on our side think, what their origins are, or what religion they profess"—and a vision for the future. A message that Puigdemont repeated this Wednesday in a message on X: "It is imperative that we preserve the formula of October 1, because it is the one that leads to victory." Puigdemont defended October 1st as a "historical heritage" and the "foundation stone for building a future of freedom."

Eight years after the events of October 2017, there is still no clear consensus on what the so-called Process was. This period began with the 2012 Diada, the first organized by the ANC, and can officially be considered over on May 12, 2024, when the majority of the independence movement loses. During this period, with varying intensity, the debate over independence and the self-determination referendum dominated the Catalan and, to some extent, Spanish political agendas. There is no doubt that the culminating moment of the Process was October 1, 2017, when more than two million people participated in a referendum on independence, thus defying the ban imposed by the Spanish courts.

Yesterday, something unprecedented occurred: the Catalan government publicly stated that it disagreed with the Spanish government. This is no small feat, given that we're talking about two socialist governments, with a president of the Generalitat who had previously been a Spanish minister and whose PSOE spokesperson is from the PSC. In other words, when two such similar groups disagree publicly, it's news.

At the Dictum bookstore, which Shahzaib Khan (known to everyone as Miquel) opened five years ago, where the large warehouses of the Banyoles industrial estate border the town's stately old quarter, the shelves full of books take the Pakistani-born bookseller back to his childhood in Kashmir, where he was born. The son of a teacher and a police chief, Shahzaib remembers his house being full of books and being surprised that at his friends' houses the shelves only contained decorative objects. "Don't they read in this house?" he would ask his mother, to whom he owes his love of literature. Instead of taking him and his siblings to the park to play, my mother took them to book clubs, to the movies, or to see a show.

Former general coordinator of IU (1989-2000) Julio Anguita has been clear this Thursday in relation to the Catalan process. In a conversation with journalists at the UB before the presentation of the book 'Atraco a la memoria' about his political life, written by the historian Juan AndradeAnguita has shown himself convinced that "But he doesn't want independence", but one "free associated state" in the Spanish State, with which they even share the King as head of state.

After the electoral defeat of the independence movement a year ago, it makes perfect sense to ask how long President Salvador Illa's autonomist policy of "concord" with Spain will last and how it will end. Of course: concord according to his point of view, colonial docility and the Spanishization of the Catalans according to mine. But, regardless of their respective points of view, and without wishing to fall into a simplistic historical determinism, the truth is that we come from where we come from. And furthermore, considering recent history, we know what state we are talking about and what Spanish nation they want to assimilate us into.

This morning we saw the body of Pope Francis for the first time. His death He has reminded us once again that a much thinner thread seems to separate life from death. This Sunday, he blessed the faithful in the Plaza de Sant Pere, and next Sunday, he will be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

No to independence (48%) remains above yes (44%) in the latest Barometer of the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió (CEO), which has increased its questions on the subject. For example, to determine what support for an agreed solution is, either to achieve an independent state or to remain within Spain. 60% of Catalans prefer this option: half of them hope to build an independent Catalonia and the other half for Catalonia to remain part of Spain. Only 11% of those in favour of independence defend unilateralism, while 9% of the unionists consider that there should not be any negotiation.