Catalan politics has left behind “el procés” (the process), the decade-long institutional and social movement that sought the unilateral secession of Catalonia outside existing legal channels. This was a political movement that placed enormous stress on the institutions of Catalan self-government, divided its society, affected its economy and caused serious personal harm to its leaders. It was a movement displaying the detrimental referendum logic seen across a lot the Western world during the last decade.
But Catalans themselves have now decided to end the nationalist/independence majority in their parliament — and we intend to listen to them.
After winning May’s regional elections with a majority of the votes (28 percent), the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC-PSOE) struck deals with the pro-independence progressives of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the left-wing Sumar party, obtaining the necessary votes to achieve an absolute majority in the parliament and make Salvador Illa president of the Generalitat.
So, as we return to government after 14 years in opposition, we will now have to negotiate and articulate progressive majorities that overcome the divisions of recent Catalan politics. And so far, it seems Illa has been able to break through the entrenched polarization to establish new shared objectives for Catalonia’s self-government and financial autonomy.
Garnering attention during the first years of the Covid-19 pandemic as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s minister of health, Illa’s solvent, sober and tenacious attitude has been rewarded by the Catalan electorate at a time of uncertainty and profound change. We believe the return of the Socialists to the Catalan government is a victory for constructive politics that builds bridges — as well as an endorsement of Sánchez’s ambitious policy for Catalonia.
The independence movement continues to be relevant, of course. But it constitutes a minority in Catalan society, and today, it’s more divided than ever, without a clear roadmap beyond the permanent self-dramatization of some of its protagonists.