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.

However much those who read politics and history from outdated textbooks may find it hard to admit, the last popular front in Catalonia wasn't ninety years ago, in 1936, but eleven years ago, in 2015. And it wasn't called the Left Front, as in '36, but Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes). This electoral coalition, formed by ERC, CDC, and independent figures, swept the elections of September 27, 2015, with a radical and clearly progressive platform, becoming the leading force in every single region of the country—including the capital, Barcelona—and more than doubling the result of its closest competitor.

The poor functioning of the commuter rail network has been a reality for decades. The Network of Rail User Platforms of Catalonia and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) have called on Catalans to take to the streets this Saturday to protest the state of the network and the neglect of its users in two separate demonstrations. Discontent with the commuter rail system is long-standing, as evidenced by Catalonia's first mass demonstration against the chaos of the rail system in 2007, sparked by the construction of the high-speed rail line (AVE) in Barcelona. According to the Barcelona City Police (Guardia Urbana), 200,000 people participated, while organizers estimated 700,000—figures that would foreshadow the large-scale mobilizations of the Catalan independence movement. The cry in the streets of Barcelona on December 1, 2007, was clear: "We are a nation, and we have had enough." Enough is enough with the infrastructure and rail service deficiencies, but also with the pressing need for self-government, which was already evident in the abridged Statute of Autonomy.

After massive Catalonia Days in which it seemed that there was a consensual sovereigntist roadmap and a serious political strategy to implement it, after Days in response to the indignity of the violence of 1 October and the apathy and cowardice of the governments that turned the great Spanish political question into a judicial issue, after Days in which so many Catalans denounced the imprisonment and exile of their leaders, today we have a new scenario. A new stage in which the covid and its economic and vital consequences cannot be overlooked.