If the intention is that the fifth anniversary of 1-O brings together and facilitates sufficient cohesion for the independence movement to forge a shared road map, first it will have to cross out the entire list of disagreements between independence parties, and between these, the entities and the civil society.
Jordi Turull, general secretary of JxCat, demanded on Wednesday "to take action" taking advantage of 1-O. "The first challenge is to get people excited again and find meaning in mobilizing again." "You have to overcome the mourning phase" for the fifth anniversary, he said at the CUO's Universitat Catalana d'Estiu Dolors Sabater. Also Marta Vilalta, ERC spokesperson, urged to rebuild the strategic consensus. They demand to pass to a new phase with regard to the national axis, but they do so with little conviction.
They will have work. For now they are only words, because that list has relevant elements that still beat: a possible vote by the Junts militancy to leave the Government; Laura Borràs suspended from her functions as deputy, which disqualifies her as president of the Parliament, with the votes of Republicans and couperos, and Pere Aragonès demanding that she leave office; a mobilization for the Onze de Setembre that the ANC raises affirming that "there is no more waiting for something from the parties"; a CUP that handles a document that it will share in the fall in which it bets on the "absolute rupture" with the Government and that demands day in and day out that the president submit to a matter of confidence; Òmnium warning for months of the risks that civil disobedience becomes "frivolous".
There are no complicities. They are not expected to be reinstated at the September general policy debate and new budgets are anyone's guess. Aragonès assures that he wants to endure until the end of the legislature, in 2025.
In addition, publicly there are increasingly bitter reproaches among representatives of the three parties. The growing boos –although from minority groups– to elected officials do not invite politicians to make an appearance at the mobilizations either. "At least, be comfortable in them," they admit from Republican ranks. "We do not want new tributes to Borràs", they add, recalling the remarks made to members of the Table who voted to suspend the president or the act of memory for the victims of the attacks on August 17, 2017.
Waiting for the act organized by the Government on its own, when Antoni Castellà, from the Consell per la República (CxRep), presented the concentration that the entity is preparing around the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, he did so trusting that it would be “a massive act” where “entities, citizens, parties and institutions come together again”, “claim that the referendum was legal” and that the “result is still valid”.
It will be difficult for unity to be remade, because in addition to all the disagreements, the independence movement has to face the disintegration of strategies to advance towards independence, but also because after five years, that 1-O has gone from being binding for the entire spectrum independentista to only be for some.
Everyone values it as a "great act of civil disobedience." But from here differences appear. Not everyone considers the result valid, as the CxRep points out. Namely, Esquerra has believed since 2019 that that referendum lacked “internal legitimacy” and is betting on a second referendum moment that crystallizes thanks to the dialogue table. A space that he does not intend to abandon even if the right wing governs in the future from Moncloa.
Together, like the ANC or the CxRep, it defends that "the mandate" of 1-O is "current" and advocates the application of the results. They bet on it as long as there is not, perhaps due to international pressure, another vote, this time agreed, like the Scottish one in 2014.
The CUP wants to synchronize a –unilateral– referendum in Catalonia with the one Scotland can hold on October 19, 2023 –there are few options for a second referendum there. On 1-O, the anti-capitalists have already written in their 2021 electoral program that "it did not obtain all the guarantees that the legislation and the international community consider necessary to grant it legal and political validity, due to the threats and repression exerted by the Spanish State.”
