Catalan nationalism in Northern Catalonia will face a crucial test this Sunday in the municipal elections. Beyond understanding the state of the movement, the keystone is Perpignan. The northern Catalan capital is the largest city in France with a mayor from the far-right National Rally party, Louis Aliot, who recently told EFE that he is not "anti-Catalan," only "anti-independence," and that he defends "Catalan culture," despite having vetoed a wedding conducted in Catalan because he insisted on French. Sant Jordi has been cornered in the middle of his progressive change of the cityWith over 120,000 inhabitants, Perpignan accounts for a quarter of the population of Northern Catalonia, which is approaching half a million, and is the main battleground for Catalan nationalism, which is also divided there. Perpignan's importance helps explain why the leader of the French far right, Jordan Bardella, and the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have both landed there. How does Catalan nationalism approach the elections?

Movements within the Catalan Church. Catholic Catalanism has decided to mobilize, organize itself, and exert pressure on the Catalan clergy and their grassroots members, as well as on the Holy See, according to several sources in this newspaper. This comes at a crucial moment when Pope Leo XIV must make essential decisions regarding the appointment of bishops, such as the one in Barcelona, ​​but also in a context marked by the proliferation of Catholic initiatives with conservative or ultraconservative and pro-Spanish leanings. Specifically, some thirty Catholic and Catalan nationalist organizations, many with a social focus, have joined together in the Network of Christian Entities, which has existed for a few months but was officially launched at an event this Thursday at noon.

There are Barcelonans who speak of the city as their homeland, and it makes sense, because civic nationalism gets better press than national nationalism. A Barcelonan can complain that foreigners predominate on their street without fear of being labeled racist. They can publicly harass tourists, who are, for the most part, middle-class people who enjoy traveling as much as we do... Another reason for being a Barcelonan nationalist is to bypass the conflict between Catalan and Spanish identity. A kind of third way: urban, global, and Mediterranean. This third way, however, tends to use Spanish and see Catalan identity as a constraint. But there are also Barcelonans who are proud of their city precisely because it is the capital of Catalonia, something so objective that, by ignoring it, we fail to explain what that city is, what makes it different.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez is deeply dividing Catalan political identity today. In the post-independence era, without a pro-independence majority, the big question is what to do with the Spanish government: whether to block it or negotiate with it. Without any criticism of their past actions, former Catalan presidents José Montilla, Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, and Pere Aragonès clashed over Sánchez and unity in a colloquium on Catalan identity this Thursday. Because they quickly reached an agreement on Catalan identity in theory, but when it comes to putting it into practice, everything changes.

The PP and Catalanism have been two poles that in recent years, especially since the Process, have tended to oppose each other. But this has not always been the case, and the PP has attempted some Catalanist shifts. While the period of the rise of the independence movement and Alejo Vidal-Quadras's presidency of the Catalan PP are marked by a complete clash, Josep Piqué led a commitment to a Catalanist path, although he was given no leeway from Génova and ended up being ousted. Likewise, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho led a campaign his proposal for "singular financing" when CiU demanded a fiscal pact, but with the Proceso, it turned the page. Currently, according to ARA, strategic internal work is underway within the Catalan PP to promote its own pro-Catalan path.

For some time now, Catalan nationalists have been talking less and less about sovereignty and more about "demography," which in most cases is a euphemism for "immigration." Within the Catalan nationalist community, a diagnosis has become increasingly popular that identifies the strong demographic growth of recent years as the source of many of the social, cultural, and national problems facing Catalonia.

The mayor of Badalona, ​​​​Xavier García Albiol, establishes his own profile within the Catalan PP in defense of the language of the Principality. However, an approved motion "in support" of the National Pact for the Language on numerous points – promoted by Salvador Illa's executive – has caused an internal earthquake: the Catalan PP, pressured by Génova, has disavowed Albiol in a statement, since despite the fact that his strategy has been well received by multiple members, the newspaper The World and the nerves and concern on the part of the state leadership, according to ARA. "We reject President Salvador Illa's language policy and the National Pact," reads the forceful statement sent this Thursday by the leadership led by Alejandro Fernández. However, sources consulted maintain that the problem has been primarily in Madrid, not with the Catalan People's Party (PP).

The Visit of King Felipe VI to Montserrat still brewing in some sectors of the independence movement, but several actors in the movement remain in tune with the abbey. Some are grateful for the latest gestures, which have turned the page on the complex situation derived from the invitation to the Spanish monarchy at the monastery's millennium events—after the royal family wanted to be present. In any case, more than two months after the event with the head of state, the abbey has now held a reception for the Catalan nationalist. Canigó Award from the Catalan Summer University (UCE), in which the abbot, Manel Gasch, spoke of "Catalan Countries." Gasch also He met with former President Carles Puigdemont in Waterloo. this week, and He sent a message to the PP and the rest of the European Parliament., with the demand for the use of Catalan in the European Union, as "part of the identity" of the continent, within an exhibition on the monastery's millennium in which he implicitly rowed for official status in the EU. Has there been a Catalanist redemption of Montserrat?

Manuel de Pedrolo (l'Aranyó, 1918 – Barcelona, ​​​​1990) tried to get his first and only political essay, entitled, through censorship three times. Letters from CataloniaAll three times, the censors rejected him. The writer displayed, in the judges' words, a "definitely separatist character" and presented a text they considered "political propaganda with particular violence." It was the summer of 1966, a time when the Franco dictatorship was experiencing a certain degree of openness, but even so, the state apparatus did not yield to Pedrolo's demands. Letters from Catalonia It was forgotten in a drawer until, six decades later, the publishing house Comanegra unearthed it from the writer's archive. The essay now sees the light of day in an anthology entitled Combat prose, which is part of the collection Authorships and which also includes about forty articles by Pedrolo published between 1964 and 1988, some of which are also unpublished.

When Alberto Núñez Feijóo was appointed leader of the PP, he spoke of "Catalan nationality," of improving financing, and championed "constitutional Catalanism." But the passage of time and the unique profile of the PP leader in the Principality, Alejandro Fernández, have left the idea on the back foot, although it could have traction. There are cadres who advocate recovering the spirit of former leader Josep Piqué, as the Galician PP does. Now, is it likely that he will eventually push this constitutional Catalanism forward?

The Montserrat Abbey's invitation to King Felipe VI to participate in a millennium event sparked protests and unrest among the independence movement and Catholic Catalans. The visit, that occurred After the Royal House expressed that it wanted to take part, according to some voices consulted by this newspaper, it represents a further step in a political shift by Montserrat aligned with thestatus quo, while others, like the abbey, flatly deny it. Has there been a shift?

King Felipe VI's upcoming visit to Montserrat on the eve of Saint John's Day has caused a stir among Catalan Catholic circles, suggesting that consultations within the Royal Household pointed in that direction. The Newspaper published that the monarch would attend on June 23, but at that time, despite the Head of State's intention to attend, no details had been agreed upon between the institutions nor had the king's attendance been formally communicated, according to sources familiar with the matter to this newspaper. The Montserrat Abbey, symbol of Catalanism, has he opened the doors to the head of state?

Born in Òdena in 1990, Josep Vicenç Mestre holds a doctorate cum laude and has received an award for the best doctoral thesis in Catalan from the Pompeu Fabra University for his study on the analysis of the speeches of the presidents of Catalonia between 1914 and 1933. This thesis gave rise to the book President's remarks. Nation and State in the speeches of Prat de la Riba, Puig i Cadafalch, and Macià (Editorial Asuntos, 2024). He is an associate professor at UPF and a former advisor to the Junts government and to the Parliamentary Speaker Laura Borràs.

On March 20, Northern Catalonia entered the fray of Catalan politics with the controversy surrounding the delegate of Salvador Illa's government in the territory, Christopher Person, what's going on reject the name Catalunya del Nord. Beyond Junts, ERC and the CUP, there has been a northern Catalan party that has called for a dismissal that the executive has not done: Catalan Unity, a historic party created in 1986. A party that, in fact, has recently broken a historic barrier in Northern Catalonia. The Northern Catalan party has landed a representative on the departmental council of the Eastern Pyrenees, the equivalent of a provincial council that groups the Northern Catalan regions. With Jaume Pol, a Catalanist party has joined the institution for the first time, although there have been—and are—Catalanist representatives from French state parties, such as the Republican, Centrist, or Communist parties.

Jordi Pujol is the president who has given the most power to Catalonia, and the journalist Txema Seglers wanted to reflect this in his book Pujol and I (Saldonar, 2025) a portrait of the character through thirty witnesses, as well as his personal history. This vision of the heads and tails has landed in the presentation of the book, together with the former councilor Irene Rigau, the ERC deputy in Congress Francesc-Marc Álvaro and the deputy director of the ARA and president of the Barnils Group, Enric Borràs –all of them participants in the book–. Beyond the fact that each one has "his Pujol", in full rise of the far right and the questioning of sanitary cordons In the Catalan Alliance, he planned an idea of consensus: "What Pujol said about Catalanness in the 60s and 70s is now countercultural and progressive," said Álvaro.