The first to take the floor was Iñigo Robredo Korta, a member of the Secretary of State of the Cup of Catalonia. It was up to him to unravel what he has given and can give the independence process. With regard to the historical facts about the referendum and the declaration of independence, although they did not have continuity, he pointed out that the conclusions are irreversible. But he said it was early to accurately identify them. “The political significance of the new truth we construct remains to be seen, of this new subjectivity. In Venezuela, nine years have passed since Chávez took office and the popular protest called Caracazo. How long will it take for us to build the Republic? We don’t know.”

The Cup listed the positive and negative teachings that are taking place within the Generalitat. Among the former, the citizens’ ability to mobilize and respond and the attitude of the “fighting” syndicalist. It lasted longer in deficiencies and errors. “Verticality and opacity of decision-making spaces”, fitting decisions into offices. Because the approval of the elections imposed from the Kingdom of Spain meant the recognition of a strange legality, culminating in the process of rupture. In fact, the understanding of the rupture had prevailed, in his view, by an excess of goodness: “We don’t create the mantra that says from law to law.” Institutions are afraid of disobedience because of their internal logic. The street should be “the one that imposes the overflow and disobedience of the institution”.

At the end of a cycle of mobilizations, the Cup sees the accumulation of forces in a new phase in Catalonia. There are many questions and uncertainties, which is why they have opened up the process of reflection. One of the most powerful controversies is power. “Borders, infrastructures, capital. How do you get popular control of those three?” In the meantime, sovereign processes from field to field are weighing up. "If we want to talk about the future, we have to address sovereignties. If you talk to people about the practical value of the Republic, about changing living conditions, they will listen to you.” Among other things, he referred to the electricity bills or poisoned food in the department stores. “We understand independence not as a flag change, but as a paradigm and life change.”

What lessons have we learned in Euskal Herria?

Turn of Basque agents. What subjects can we extract from Catalonia for the Basque national construction? Beyond Catalonia, today and here, what? To these two questions had to be answered by Pello Otxandiano Kanpok de Sortu, Unai Lizaso de Seguro Esku Dago (GED) and Zergatik ez? Unai Apaolaza of the initiative.

Apaolaza began with a “beautiful finding”: ten years later, independence has tripled in Catalonia. He highlighted the lessons and related them to the causes that explain this evolution. “When the rhythm and the agenda are in the hands of organized society, the process goes fast and in the right direction. When the balance tilts towards the parties, the process slows down and there may be losses on the agenda. They need the two, they interact, it’s about who bears the command.” In his words, 1 October is a sign of the strength of confrontation. “High levels of confrontation increase independence if they occur in place and in the right way.” Apaolaza also underlined one final lesson: that the forces have not put themselves in the search for an agreement between the parties, but in the activation and radicalisation of society. Although it can give a nuance, he pointed out that it establishes a "huge" contrast in the setting of strategies.

“We have to spread the zoom,” Otxandiano started, placing the process in the global and European context. In these times of systemic crisis and ‘savage phase’ of capitalism, two reactions are occurring in Europe. A “populist xenophobic right” and a “progressive populist reaction” that can be placed near fascism or fascism itself. In the latter, it places many citizen processes: The M15 and the sovereign processes of Scotland, Ireland, Catalonia or the Basque Country. In their view, all of them are based essentially on the same claim: “The recovery of sovereignty.” In stateless nations, this reaction acquires, in the words of Otxandiano, the form of the claim of a State.

They combine mobilization with the use of the political-institutional system. “This is, for example, one of the lessons of Catalonia. A constant dialectic, contradictory between these two spaces, which sometimes leads the feeder to the stop”. The leader of Sortu believes that the current State of Catalonia is in a state of stagnation.

But citizen processes are not a single phase, according to Otxandiano. In Catalonia, the self-determinist phase ended in the milestone of 1 October. Since then, they have been in the “implementation phase of the Republic”. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but you can predict it’s going to be a long phase.”

Lizaso, of the movement of the Tours Esku Dago, wanted to share not his own reflections, but those that have been conveyed to them by the different agents of Catalonia. “Two major mistakes were mentioned: one, the belief that they would not dare; another, hope in Europe.

To explain that they have reached where they are, they told them about three crises being recorded in Catalonia. “Economic crisis, with M15 as the main indicator. Political crisis, with discontent and disaffection for the institutions and the political class. And a crisis of territoriality that calls into question the Regime of 78”. Lizaso highlighted the great influence that popular movements have had on all of them, as well as the way in which they have developed. “They have been able to conduct very radical fights taking great care of the forms. Attractive, smile, respect. They are also a means to bring people closer.”

What is there in the Basque Country?

Pello Otxandiano is optimistic. “It seems to us that there is a very strong social drive that is linked to this historical cycle of mobilizations.” As an example, he highlighted three movements: pensioners, feminists and Altsasu. They and many others see them directly linked to sovereignty. “The challenge is how to bring all this to a concrete proposal of sovereignty. What tactical and strategic proposal will put on the table the independentism, which will be able to articulate this social drive”.

Otxandiano placed the challenge in the context of the multidimensional crisis of the Kingdom of Spain and about to reach a new economic crisis. “This State cannot be maintained.” It foresaw the democratic involution and polarization, among other things, the positions against Euskal Herria. The challenge of independence is to be able to face this moment: “Moments of rupture require preparation for it.”

GED is not a pro-independence agent, and Unai Lizaso warned that this is reflected in his arguments. “We were born with three pillars: we are a people, we have the right to decide and it is the time of citizenship.” In his view, the key lies in the last statement he made. Herrigintza, parties, institutions. “Synchrony and collaboration” between these three areas is important. They think there will be tensions and tensions, and therefore, “citizenship and popular movements must assume a certain leadership, demonstrating the way”.

With these principles in the political practice of ED, Lizaso talked about popular consultations and the human chain this year. Through the questionnaires, the right to decide to practice is vindicated, “it supposes a change in mentality”. The chain pursued two main objectives: Activate the citizenship and give impetus to the self-government conference of the Basque Country. “We overcame the goals too.” For the future, they intend to give substance to a People’s Pact that fulfils the right to decide. “It’s very much related to the sovereign discourse.” By February they are preparing a major initiative that will say what we are going to decide, without asking for permission. “The beginning of a new political phase.”

Trying to develop new strategies, but with the legs locked in old schemes. Thus represented Apaolaza the Basque independence. “There are enormous contradictions and frustrations.” There is a clear need to transform the framework of independence, “what we consider natural.” “We have to put aside strategies that aim to bring the PNV closer or divide and seek independence of 80%. Catalonia shows that it is possible.”

The point is to get the right keys, according to Apaolaza. "To begin with, we must break with the slogan that independence is a matter for nationalists, arguing that a state of its own would be for the benefit of all. The role of the parties should be reconsidered at the same time. An indispensable stimulus for the articulation, but it does not serve as the main tool”. In order to create and materialize majorities, in addition to the agreements, he defended the development of the confrontation proposed in an appropriate way and place. To advance all of the above, we need an agent capable of marking the agenda and confrontation in the independence process.

In the short term, the City Hall proposed as a battlefield. By uniting the strength of the independence left in municipalities with that of society, he sees the conditions for developing “powerful actions of obedience or self-determination with the people.” And at all times independence pedagogy. “Taking things that affect us on a daily basis, let us argue the need for the Republic.”

The differences and common points were the ones that the speakers put on the table. Looking to the future, each from his perspective has joined several keys for Catalonia and the Basque Country. What is coming is not written, difficult to foresee, decisive times... After listening to the rapporteurs, it became clear that the outcome will depend on decisions and practices, that the debate is still open and that it is urgent.