After the truce of Diada, the independence movement must choose between continuing to suffer or rebuilding a project ruined by partisan struggles and the advance of the most radical sectors.
The independence movement demands unity and “stop licking its wounds” in a Diada of minimums
Salvador Illa has repeated so much that his vocation is to unite and serve that in one of the radio parodies they added another verb: to annoy. It would seem that a politician who does not promise major reforms or save democracy, but rather proposes to improve public services and avoid clashes with the opposition, is doomed to failure. Or not, since he won the elections with this strategy and has no intention of changing it.
“A prosperous and just nation for all is truly built in classrooms, in primary care centers, in libraries, in nursing homes, and in the streets and squares of safe neighborhoods,” he proclaimed in his first Presidential Day speech. It turns out that your recipe can help resist the narratives that are slowly undermining democracy (without becoming a Viktor Orbán) and that have been permeating the most disadvantaged groups in French neighborhoods for years.
Catalonia is no exception and the extreme right is advancing here as in the rest of Europe, with the addition of Vox and Aliança Catalana. There are actors in the independence movement who are clear that the entire extreme right must be fought, regardless of its flag (Òmnium Cultural and the CUP are the most firm), but others are hesitant (the interview with Lluís Llach in RAC1 is the most recent example) or we are even beginning to believe the argument that the racist discourse of the mayor of Ripoll is not so exclusive. There are also those who are willing to hand out cards of good and bad Catalans based on language or origin, which is not new, but they are increasingly numerous, both online and offline.
The independence movement must decide whether or not to tackle the radicalism of these sectors and reflect on what it is doing wrong so that fewer and fewer citizens identify with its positions. Particular concern should be given to the lack of support among young people. This same week, data emerged that proves this. According to the various barometers of the Centre for Opinion Studies (CEO) between 2014 and 2024, those who feel solely Catalan have gone from 29.1% to 18% and in the case of young people between 18 and 24 years old, the collapse has been even greater. If ten years ago, three out of ten people identified themselves solely as Catalan, today it is one in ten. And this taking into account that a citizen can only feel Catalan and cannot necessarily declare themselves to be pro-independence.
Faced with unfavourable prospects, a truce was reached this Wednesday in the division between entities and even between parties to demonstrate that the movement still has strength in the streets despite the fact that the exhibition has nothing to do with the large concentrations of the years of the process. In the most massive, in Barcelona, 60,000 people participated, half as many as last year. This time, the five demonstrations were linked to problems such as the lack of housing or infrastructure to affirm that the objective of our own State is not an essentialist will (or not only) and that it must be associated with the search for solutions to the difficulties. of daily life that many citizens suffer.
The survival of the independence movement in better or worse conditions will depend on the ability of its parties to rebuild a project that will allow them to regain support. Rebuild the unity that the protesters demanded this Wednesday, even though they already know that, in the process, it has always been imposed. And this without “selling smoke”, as the president of Òmnium, Xavier Antich, warned before the leaders of the ANC and the Junts, the ERC and the CUP. For the moment, the only thing on which everyone seems to agree is to denounce, rightly, that there are judges like Pablo Llarena who refuse to apply the law and refuse to apply the amnesty.
From the chants, in addition to the usual “independence” chants, it was clear that, at least for the majority of those who participated in the Barcelona demonstration, the reference is still Carles Puigdemont. The disconnection of the ERC or its leadership with part of the movement, very upset by the Republicans’ support for Illa’s investiture, explains why neither Oriol Junqueras nor Marta Rovira attended the rally. You already know what it’s like to be booed at an event like this and it didn’t take a lot of wit to guess that if they had shown up at the demonstration this Wednesday, they would have been sure to be whistled. Because it’s one thing to ask for unity and another to practice it.
