It is not easy to understand what is happening in Catalonia. Certainly. We can end the 2017 process, but it remains to be seen whether independence will be able to start a new process of liberation.

If independence had been maintained in most elections, there would be another situation. Although the main variable is that 900,000 independentists have stayed at home, other variables have also influenced. I'll try to explain some of them to you.

In any case, ERC was willing to put an end to the process being developed in Catalonia. He has paid a lot in the election results and from now on he will be in a complicated situation, but when he assumes the role of the “responsible left” there is no alternative.

ERC didn't want to do the 2017 one, but it was the popular movement that forced it to do it. ANC, Òmnium Cultural and the Cup had already organized thousands of activists in local groups, while ERC had barely 600 active militants. It currently has only 8,200 members in quota and a debt of almost EUR 4 million. In addition, the fact that there are more than 350 high charges that are charged with public money greatly affects decisions.

With a small number of activists, ERC had to bring the process to the electoral struggle to achieve the hegemony of independence. The Spanish State needed to paralyze the street movement and it was convenient for ERC to reduce political activity to institutional policy.

On the other hand, Junts is more than CiU. It's a conservative party with popular add-ons. That is why, among other things, ERC has not been able to bring it forward. In general, unfortunately, the loss of independence votes in the field on the left has been greater. The Cup has also suffered a great loss. This development should be carefully analysed by left-wing teams and not by right-wing ones.

Junts' social base consists of active speakers of mainly Catalan origin, concerned about the process of blurring the national characteristics of Catalonia and who have felt a strong affective rupture with the Spanish State. These sectors could not imagine that they suffered the violence of the State, as they were “people of order” (as it is said in Spanish). So they looked at themselves. Suddenly, having been treated as “criminals” for democratic action made them deeply wounded. Among other things, that is why its position is stronger than that of other sectors.

This mistreatment has not been forgiven to the State, nor to Philip VI.ri, nor to those who launched Article 155, which he has described as 'illegal'. However, this social sector is not enough to maintain a ruptured attitude. Catalonia is very complex and, despite the expansion of Junts, it alone cannot reach certain sectors of society. In addition, for the social sector represented by Junts it is very difficult to maintain the mobilization commitment required by the situation that has lasted so long, they have the need to return to “calm”.

That is why the government of Comú-Podemos is very dangerous for independence. If this government acquires “normality”, the social sphere that defends Junts will be hindered by maintaining the spirit of struggle. The state already knows this, and soon the movements within the Boards will begin to replace Puigdemont’s leadership. Media and personal hyperleaders are very weak, and that's what the 78 regime knows.

The leadership of the rupture process lay in the leftist sectors, whose militants are accustomed to working with entrepreneurs from other social sectors and to long-term struggles. Junst (and much more the ANC) managed to turn thousands of citizens who were not used to fighting into entrepreneurs. It was a great contribution, a contribution that could be on the way to disappear, if the leftist independence sectors were not able to initiate a new liberating process before the PSC-ERC systemic agreement.

The process began from the peoples, organizing, activating the most humble citizens of the peoples. From the people, from the municipalities to the massive national liberation movement. In Catalonia you may have to return to those nearby areas, and it is possible that, if a similar process is initiated in Euskal Herria, you may have to start through those nearby areas. In fact, in this new historical phase we would have to make a special effort to bring together the processes of rupture of Catalonia and Euskal Herria, synchronizing, since dynamic and coordinated processes are more likely to achieve the objectives. In this context, I think the contribution that the EHUN movement has given to the so-called “Via de Plentzia” is important, as it allows citizens to start moving.

Patxi Azparren