Generalitat of Catalonia, to speak on February 26, 2025, about "the role of political leadership in de-escalating secessionist conflicts and restoring stability." This framing, however, is a misrepresentation of Catalonia’s reality and risks legitimizing a figure who, far from embodying leadership or resolution, is seen by many Catalans as a key architect of betrayal. We are not Yale alumni, but as Catalans committed to the cause of independence, we urge the institution and its community to look beyond the narrative of surrender offered by Aragonès and the established political class. The true Catalan independence movement—alive, determined, and growing—lies outside the compromised structures of the past, and it deserves to be heard.
Pere Aragonès, during his presidency, epitomized the failure of the so-called "procés" leadership. Elected on promises of advancing Catalonia’s independence, he instead oversaw a capitulation to Spanish interests, perpetuating an annual fiscal deficit exceeding €22 billion—a systematic plunder of Catalonia’s wealth by Spain. His administration embraced policies that accelerated demographic shifts, with a 33.33% population increase in less than a decade, often seen as a deliberate erosion of Catalan identity. Most crucially, Aragonès and his party, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), alongside Junts, CUP, and their associated entities like the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, and the Council for the Republic, abandoned the binding mandate of the October 1, 2017, referendum. This referendum, bravely upheld by over three million Catalans despite brutal repression, was a clear call for independence—a call that Aragonès and the entire political establishment, including Carles Puigdemont, betrayed by refusing to implement its result.
This betrayal is not an isolated act but a systemic failure of all parties currently seated in the Catalan Parliament, except the recently emerged Aliança Catalana (AC). ERC, Junts, CUP, and even the openly Spanish unionist parties—PSC, PP, and Vox—are complicit in a collective surrender that has handed Catalonia’s government to its enemies. The evidence lies in the numbers: in the latest elections, these parties tied to the old independence "procés" lost over 1.5 million votes compared to seven years ago, a collapse that reflects the disillusionment of Catalans with a political class that has prioritized power over principle. To present Aragonès as a figure of "stability" is to whitewash this treachery and ignore the ongoing colonization of Catalonia by a Spanish state that suppresses its language, culture, and sovereignty.
The real Catalan independence movement today is not found in these failed institutions or their figureheads. It thrives in new, emerging groups unbound by the compromises of the past—groups whose sole aim is the independence and decolonization of Catalonia. These are not the voices of negotiation with Spain, nor do they seek to "de-escalate" a conflict that, for Catalans, is a struggle for survival against an occupying power. They reject the legacy of the "procés" parties and their allies, recognizing that every entity tied to the 2017 betrayal—be it ERC, Junts, CUP, Puigdemont, or the ANC—forms part of the problem, not the solution. This movement is grassroots, uncompromising, and resolute, driven by the same spirit that defied police batons on October 1, 2017.
We call on the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs to reconsider the premise of this event. Inviting Pere Aragonès risks amplifying a distorted narrative that portrays Catalonia’s struggle as resolved or pacified, when in truth it remains a live battle against oppression. If Yale seeks to understand Catalonia’s lessons for global affairs, it must look beyond the traitors and hear from the authentic independentistes—those new voices who carry the torch of freedom, untainted by the failures of the establishment. These are not names Yale alumni may yet recognize, but they represent the future of a nation that refuses to kneel. To ignore them is to misunderstand Catalonia entirely.
Would Yale invite a leader who abandoned his people's democratic mandate and still call it a lesson in leadership?
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