Catalonia, Elections, and a Nation in Flux: A Closer Look at the Mood and Movements

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The process awakened a latent dream that many Catalans had carried for years: the possibility of an independent Catalonia. The convergence of nationalist leaders announcing that path stirred up majorities, yet the upheaval could not have happened without a specific economic and social backdrop. That backdrop bred emotions which found political expression: the indignation of the 15M movement and the hopeful spark of the procés.

The mirage faded. The independence dream did not die, but many chose to place it back on a shelf. Today, as in 2012, it is impossible to analyze the electoral outcome without considering the wider context. A sequence of conflicts unfolds before the public eye: the rise of the far right, the housing crisis, climate threats, and above all the disillusionment of political experiments that rose rapidly and then collapsed just as quickly. Linked but not separate, anxiety, depression, stress, and inattention have become a social scourge. Individual problems and systemic issues weave a labyrinth in which it’s easy to lose one’s way.

Watching the national mood is essential for a broad understanding of what happened in the elections. Two vivid demonstrations of emotional turmoil that did not yield results were the defiant rhetoric surrounding Puigdemont’s restoration attempt — being seven seats away from the PSC felt more like a defeat than a triumph — and the elevation of a symbol associated with the Comuns, the Hard Rock venue, which proved too destabilizing when the cost of renting a home could not be met. Salvador Illa does not come across as an electrifying drink; rather, he resembles a soothing tisane. Perhaps that explains why he picked up votes from various sources, offering a touch of calm amid polarization. A moment of reflection amid the frenzy. A pledge of stability when everything is in flux. On election night Puigdemont claimed that the unionist mobilization was evident as a consequence of a strategy of Spanish-ification. A broad reading problem and contempt for differing viewpoints are also telling signs of the times.

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