There are two ways to analyze this year's Diada. The pessimistic one reminds us that the country faces internal problems, and the latent threat of an involution in Spain, which –historically– indicates that we will be the ones to suffer. But in this context, the Eleventh of September has brought some 50,000 people to the streets, with more young people than ever; it is a respectable figure in our listless present. But it has also reminded us that among “our own” there are people who exude hatred. A new poll predicts the meteoric rise of Aliança Catalana. Overall, Parliament would once again have an absolute pro-independence majority, which will not be operational because there is a political and moral abyss between those who could be involved. If it serves as any consolation, the “Spanish” bloc is equally useless (unless the PSC wants to commit suicide by making a pact with the PP and Vox). Who will fish in these troubled waters? Many of us warned that the baton blows against the ballot boxes on October 1st could create a generation of skeptics. But we were not thinking of Orriols when, after the imprisonment of the pro-independence leaders, we shouted “The smiles are over!” Andreu Nin also, in April 1931, wrote: “Ourrevolutionwill not be so cheerful”. Because independence, like any revolution, is a serious affair. But Orriols has nothing serious about her, beyond her ridiculous solemnity. Her discourse, besides being an ethical failure of Catalanism, is a distraction and a deception.

The right-wing shift of the country is advancing unstoppably. I am not speaking in electoral terms, but rather about the level of tension and simplification of the debate, ingredients of this turn towards the purest and hardest right, the one that boasts of easily finding culprits and remedies. The right is taking over the landscape and finding fertile ground in a country like Catalonia, where several factors of disaffection coincide: a) a feeling of decadence and uprooting; b) a real strain on public services, and c) the pendular response to the left-wing turn of the years of the 'Procés', when the CUP set the agenda with an impractical and highly moralistic leftism (“Franciscan”, as Enric Juliana called it). The 2010s, in Catalonia, were an Age of Aquarius, with a lot of posturing and clichés. Manuel Delgado has said that “in the face of hate speech, the left has offered urban gardens”. It is an exaggeration, but one based on real facts.I am of a certain age and I remember how the yuppies hedonists of the 80s laughed at the hippies. Everything is cyclical, but each cycle makes things worse. The migration crisis has derailed the left, which has been left without an answer, has worn out the term fascist to the point that it no longer means anything and has left the field open to half-baked Trumpists who preach Manichaeism and ethnic hatred. To face this offensive, anti-fascism no longer has a David Fernàndez, but rather Juana Dolores and other parodies that dare to speak in the name of the working class and continue to point out trivialities instead of addressing what had always been the strong point of the left: real policies against inequality and the collapse of public services. These are major threats that the rampant right will hardly address, because it is more profitable for them to spread fear and hatred towards the weak, and, in the case of Spain, to stimulate a jingoistic resurgence that, even without exaggeration, can be branded as neo-Francoist. The most worrying thing about this phenomenon is not the brainless with their braying, but the police, the judges, and the economic and media oligarchies that hope to fish in troubled waters. It is a coalition too powerful for the PSOE to deal with, considering that the Sánchez government is driving without a steering wheel and with flat tires.Spain is moving with firm steps towards the hegemony of the PP and Vox, which will have a lesser reflection in Catalonia. But in front of it, there is no longer the old transversal, mesocratic Catalanism based on civic strength, but rather a PSC surrendered to the PSOE and, therefore, in a state of shock; two depressed parties managing the shipwreck of the 'Procés' and a local far-right that instead of challenging the State, as it should, prefers to attack those who wear a veil and do not eat pork. A desolate panorama that can only be reversed when Catalan identity—which, despite its thinning, constitutes our core, in a country torn apart by divisions of all kinds—decides to form a common front and stand up. Since October 1st, we know that this means conflict. External and internal. Are we prepared for it?Let us remember –once again– the journalist Agustí Calvet, Gaziel. In 1936, when Companys asked him for advice, the journalist predicted the rise of fascism and the fall of the republic: “Will we have time to organize ourselves (...) so that when the inevitable collapse comes, our freedoms do not also collapse?”, he asked himself. And finally, an appeal to the unity of the Catalans: “It is not (...) an indispensable task: it is THE ONLY ONE”. The difference is that Gaziel advocated for this Catalan unity in the face of “Castilian and Castilianized Spain”, and today we know that it is not possible to make a clean break between these two realities. Here is the challenge we will face.

One of the worst insults one can receive in this country is that of “processist”. We were so fed up with the political episode that culminated in October 2017. For Spaniards, the Process was a seditious and irresponsible exercise. For independence supporters, it was a display of improvisation and cowardice. Both sides are united in their stubborn determination to discredit the protagonists of that adventure. This coincidence in harsh criticism contrasts with the very different price that the two sides have paid for it On the independence side, there has been a considerable washout, due to repression and personal wear and tear. Changes in politics are logical; the subsequent public lynching by the most irascible sector of the sovereignist bases themselves is not so much. All in all, it seems evident to me that the punishment (real and reputational) suffered by the repressed has been much more severe than that of the repressors. It can be argued that grassroots independence showed itself extremely solidarity at least until the Tsunami Democràtic (which also failed) and the Urquinaona incidents; afterwards, the dispute between the symbolic fanfare of exile and the pactist turn of ERC spread disillusionment. Finally, the idea prevailed that the leaders of the Process, by focusing on the anti-repression struggle (which resulted in pardons and amnesty), were helping to bury – once again – the sovereignist dispute. The two main protagonists of the Process – Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras – remain at the forefront. The first has been in exile for nine years; the second spent four years in prison and remains disqualified. Both are waiting for the amnesty, wrested with forceps from the PSOE government, to overcome the obstacles posed by the vindictive Spanish judiciary. However great the mistakes they made in 2017, they have paid for them in full. Both want a last dance, an opportunity to redeem themselves.

The battle for education will have dire consequences for students, families, the teachers who are striking, and, above all, for the protagonists of the negotiation process: on the one hand, the unions, disavowed by their base, and on the other, the Department of Education, which has seen its ups and downs and last-minute concessions prove futile. In short, it is a battle where everyone loses. There will be – indeed – labor improvements for some public servants who certainly deserve them (but they are not the only ones), but the great pending issue, which is the crisis in the educational model, will continue to await better times, times when generosity and a national vision prevail over tactical maneuvering and vested interests.On a political level, the conflict has confirmed the failure of the Illa government's narrative. They sold us good management and a de-escalation of tension, but the times when the PSC boasted of having anesthetized the country are long gone. On the contrary, it has been shown that the problems that, in part, motivated the rise of sovereigntism are still very much alive, although for the moment there is no social movement capable of turning citizen anger into a shock force. The country is as fed up as ever, but it has been deprived of a horizon of change and improvement. And the anger is beginning to give oxygen to those who are always ready to point to the most vulnerable, as victims but also as involuntary accomplices of a productive model that is crushing the social contract and the factors of collective cohesion. To top it all off, the PSC no longer relies on the PSOE's trump card (which is also the anti-PP trump card), because Sánchez's future is becoming clouded by moments.This scenario can entice the PSC's electoral rivals, but precisely the educational crisis should make them see that tactical maneuvering, when faced with the real challenges of the country, is not an option. ERC and CiU have already suffered teacher strikes, and both parties are complicit in the failure of the Catalan school model. It is up to the Government to initiate a new national pact for education, and it is up to the opposition – and the teachers – to have the generosity to get fully involved without thinking about their particular interests, be they electoral, ideological, or corporate.We don't know what would happen today in an election, but we do know that the citizenry is discontent. If the far-right rises, it will be difficult to avoid closer collaboration between the country's central forces –PSC, Junts, ERC, Comuns–, regardless of the number of seats they obtain. Since right now everyone is fighting with everyone, it is civil society that is making proposals (the Informe Fènix" is the clearest example). But, in the long run, institutions must exercise the leadership that corresponds to them. This does not just mean parliamentary consensus; it also means a constituent process to end the abnormality of Catalan political life, which has the theoretical leader of the opposition in exile, independentists disqualified or awaiting trial due to an amnesty that is a wet paper, and all this governed by an Autonomy Statute that has been cut and not ratified by the citizenry.If the PSC wants to lead the country and undertake the great reforms that are increasingly urgent, it now knows that it cannot do it alone. It also knows that its potential allies are sovereigntist or confederalist parties – in any case, parties that challenge the current constitutional framework. This will become even more evident when the PP and Vox reach Moncloa. More sovereignty and more resources are needed to face the present and save the future. Who will dare to oppose this watchword? Fortunately for Salvador Illa, ERC and Junts are too busy sticking their fingers in their eyes and resolving their internal contradictions. One day, however, they will see the handle of the frying pan in front of them.

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.