The Catalan will to be

"I'm glad to see that Catalonia has once again actively contributed to Spain's growth," said António Costa, President of the European Council, on Tuesday at the Cercle d'Economia. According to the Portuguese Socialist, this is demonstrated by the return of the headquarters of major companies. In reality, the relocation of headquarters was carried out to exert pressure and prevent Catalonia from leaving. And it never did. But contrary to the intentions of the independence process , the decade of independence did not serve to increase Catalan power. Quite the contrary, it revealed the weakness of its political and economic ruling class, and the country and Barcelona were left in a situation of subsidiarity and regionalization with respect to Madrid.

This harsh, and often denied, reality is what various actors are currently trying to overcome. This is no easy task, given that in an increasingly disordered world, it is very difficult to find reliable coordinates from which to orient oneself. However, despite the difficulties, there is common ground in Catalonia to work on. Two incidents in recent days have demonstrated this.

In difficult situations it becomes clear for which territory the autonomous model was organized

The first is the Generalitat's desire to maintain self-governance and leverage its powers to address the power outage. It is, above all, in major crises that it becomes clear who has the vocation to govern themselves and who sees autonomy as a mere administrative stepping stone of power or counterpower, such as the autonomous regions that requested the declaration of a national emergency. It is in difficult-to-manage situations that it becomes clear for which territory the autonomous model, from which the other regions benefited, was organized.

The second episode is the hostile takeover bid by BBVA. The purchase of Banc Sabadell, with the disappearance of the savings banks that gave the country its distinct character, would further deepen the aforementioned subsidiarity. The unanimous Catalan rejection of the operation also denotes a multiplicity of concerns linked to it, but above all the general desire to have and maintain Catalan institutions. This is not merely a business move; it is something more. It is not enough to win minds; we must win hearts.

This week we eagerly awaited the Vatican conclave. The liturgy, the temples, and the rites of the Church that come from Rome are nothing more than the expression of the will to permanence of a millennia-old institution. Without as many levers and less pomp than the Vatican, as historian Jaume Vicens Vives wrote, "the life of Catalans is an act of continuous affirmation" because "in Catalonia, the primary motivation is the will to exist." The desire for self-government and the preservation of entities based in the country demonstrate that, politics and interests aside, there is a common ground on which to build and to bring newcomers together.