The poor management of the process has generated frustration. One of its channels of channeling is Aliança Catalana, a group that wants to “save Catalonia” and, according to its visible face, Sílvia Orriols, proposes “what others only dare to say in the dining room at home.” The profile of his voter is that of a disenchanted Junts voter from Convergència and some profiles who have moved from ERC to Junts looking for a harsher narrative. But, above all, Aliança attracts young people. The stereotype is a boy - this is an eminently masculine vote -, in his twenties, who accompanied his parents, from Junts, to the large independence demonstrations and who, in becoming politically aware, has experienced family disappointment over the process and the anger at the subsequent repression.
He is a young man from the middle class, with barely any contact with immigration, who lives in medium-sized towns in the interior, where it has become very visible. Above all (often due to clothing) those of North African origin which, between 2000-2022, have gone from 1.5% to 8.3% in Manresa (77,400 inhabitants); in Vic (47,500) from 4.8% to 6.7%; in Manlleu (21,000) from 6.6% to 14%; in Berga (16,800) from 1% to 5%; in Ripoll (10,600) from 1.5% to 7.5%. This youth—who lives on the networks—contrasts an uncertain future with the message that subsidies are for immigrants and viralizes content about thefts and brawls with foreign protagonists. More than the loss of Catalan or a culture, he feels that his family is not a model of integration for newcomers (as his grandparents were for those of yesteryear). It doesn't matter what happens, but what he perceives. The youth of the parties are not a reference. In an aging country, recruiting young people is not a priority for traditional parties, which have domesticated the youth themselves because their members aspire to a political career, make quick jumps to party or administration positions and do not militate solely for ideology.
In 2006, pressure from the JERC – with Pere Aragonès as national spokesperson – was key to shifting the Republican leadership towards no in the Statute. Today this is unthinkable. The Olympic times of the JNC, with its “Freedom for Catalonia”, are also behind us. Disoriented by the refoundation of the convergent space and the appearance of the failed Joves Junts project, today her most subversive act is to paste posters with the face of Carles Puigdemont. While in the metropolitan area it seems that the different perception of immigration and the environment still maintains the attraction of young pro-independence supporters for ERC or the CUP, their counterparts in the interior do not consider voting for ERC, "they are the lackeys of the PSOE"; nor the CUP, “it is no to everything”; nor Junts, “it's for old people.” They are attracted to a tough discourse that, via networks, generates an element of belonging and a feeling of “we are here.” The unknown of 12-M is whether this youth and the disenchanted Junts will join together to bring the frustration of the process to the Parliament.
