10 years on: The failed roadmap to Catalan independence

March 30, 2025 marks 10 years since pro-independence parties and grassroots groups signed a "unitary pre-agreement" for a roadmap that was to lead Catalonia to independence in 18 months.  

Governing Convergence (CDC), opposition Esquerra Republicana (ERC), civic society groups Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium, as well as the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) agreed the 18-month period was to begin with the Catalan elections of September 27, 2015, which pro-independence forces billed as a de facto referendum on independence. 

Catalonia, therefore, was to be an independent state by March 2017, at the latest. 

But neither institutions nor parties completed the roadmap, and independence was not implemented after the October 2017 election, deemed illegal by Spain. 

A decade on, pro-independence parties and organizations admit they should not have set deadlines. 

They also acknowledge the need to consider the complexity of the goal, the necessary social mobilization, internal cohesion in the pro-independence movement, and the Spanish state's capacity for "repression." 

"Democratic transition" 

The two-page "pre-agreement of the unitary roadmap for the independence of Catalonia" sought to bring together the various parties and organizations that shared the goal of Catalonia "initiating a process of democratic transition" to become an independent state "if that is what the majority of citizens want." 

The roadmap was signed by Josep Rull (CDC) and Rut Carandell (Reagrupament), Marta Rovira (ERC), Carme Forcadell (ANC), Muriel Casals (Òmnium) and Josep Maria Roigé and Josep Andreu (AMI). 

"Bad" for Catalans and Spain 

Miquel Iceta, the leader of the Catalan Socialists at the time and in favor of Spanish unity, asked CDC and ERC if they were willing to "repeat October 6" and "go to prison," referring to the day in 1934 when the Catalan president, Lluís Companys, proclaimed a "Catalan state within the Spanish federal republic" in Barcelona.  

When asked directly – during an interview on Catalunya Ràdio – whether he saw the political leaders heading to prison, Iceta replied: "I see them heading towards the precipice. As for the road to prison, I don't know." 

The then Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy of the conservative People's Party, stated that the preliminary agreement on the roadmap was "bad" for both Catalans and the rest of the Spanish people. 

"It is bad in principle because it goes against the course of history, and in practice because it involves bypassing the current legislation in Spain, the constitution," he said. 

"Unthinkable" now 

Ten years on, pro-independence parties and organizations agree that it is impossible to set specific limits or deadlines when the objectives are "so great" and the path "so uncertain." 

They also admit that it would be "unthinkable" now to have any kind of preliminary agreement, given the distance between the various parties and organizations.