"In this new phase, we do not think a Catalan unity government is convenient. We must consolidate the institutions and accustom the country to the presidency of the Generalitat, but the time has come to govern". He probably did not imagine he would do so for 23 consecutive years, but the day after the 1980 elections, a triumphant Jordi Pujol was already beginning to envision that his main mission should be the creation of autonomous Catalonia. This year marks 46 years since Pujol was invested president, and it so happens that he has now been out of government for as many years as he spent at the head of the Generalitat.

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.

Before the Catalan elections, when asked about the good relationship between Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa, José Montilla commented that things might be different if the latter took office, as happened to him with Zapatero. Well, it seems the time has come, and Isla has realized that the interests of the PSC and the PSOE are often opposed. The issue of ordinality is paradigmatic of the Catalonia-Spain relationship. What generates a cross-party consensus in Catalonia provokes the same consensus in Spain... but in the opposite direction. What is seen as common sense here is considered an unacceptable privilege there. And not even the PSOE, which is most dependent on Catalonia, is capable of breaking with that hegemonic narrative.