Catalonia's parties face the fourth election event in two years this Sunday. Materially and ideologically exhausted, they are holding their breath ahead of elections in which partisan concerns overshadow the intense debate over the future of the EU or concerns about the rise of the far right. But especially the coincidence the negotiations on the formation of the parliamentary council and the investiture from the future president ultimately silenced any attempt to focus the campaign on European issues.

In the eight European elections held in Spain, the average participation in Catalonia is barely 51%. Except for the highlights of the first elections in 1987, and the last, in the middle of the trial against the processes In 2019, the graph always trended towards the trough. In 2009, this dropped to almost 37%, the historical minimum. The first question this Sunday is what reception they will receive among voters an election in which domestic results are examined with a magnifying glass.

That politics in Catalonia has completely changed is evident from the studies that follow the path of these two years. Or the comparison with what happened in the 2019 European elections. The wind is now blowing in favor of the Catalan Socialists, who have won four and are chasing their fifth. Five years ago, the PSC was looking for its way after crossing the desert because of the polarization of the processes. Javi Lopez, the most important Catalan on the Socialist list, has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. With Illa's help, the PSC, together with Pedro Sánchez, amassed territorial power, crowned the mayor of Barcelona, and added records: in the regional elections it achieved a victory in seats and votes for the first time and that too the independence movement – or before nationalism – lost the absolute majority. With a call for mobilization to stop the extreme right, the PSC wants to be as decisive as it was with 23-J, when it contributed a million votes to Sánchez.

At the 2019 event, the panorama was different. Then all eyes were focused on how the mutual struggle between the former president Carles Puigdemont, then living in Belgium, and Oriol Junqueras, sitting on the couch. The Junts founder won with 254,000 votes. Junts and ERC added 1.7 million ballots in Catalonia, almost 50% of the total. The Junts then received three Members of the European Parliament and the ERC, which was already in coalition with EH Bildu and BNG, received the same. Now the people of Puigdemont are once again betting on the solo formula, while the Republicans have extended their candidacy, Ara Repúbliques, to the Balearic Islands of Ara Més.

The independence movement hopes to make a collective show of strength after losing the majority in parliament. But within that bloc, each party needs a good result for different reasons. Those of Puigdemont, who have Toni Comín as headliner, are looking for a victory that confirms their superiority against ERC. The impossibility of the former president investment has been strengthened the opportunity to be re-elected. As for the ERC, it is in the midst of an internal battle for the future of the party and still ongoing shock After the loss of 13 deputies, a good result from Diana Riba would prevent a fourth defeat. If the result is not good, they will have the consolation of masking their results in those of Ara Repúblicas. If the furniture is saved, they can gain momentum in the investiture negotiations. where the twenty delegates carry a lot of weight.

The commons come to 9-J with two objectives. The priority is to get ahead of Podemos in the first elections in which they will face each other in Catalonia since they started working together, with Catalunya Si Que Es Pot. Second, maintain Sumar's results. In one year, the commons has lost two deputies in parliament and a large part of the municipal space, including the mayor of Barcelona. In any case, in the general election they were the second most voted party in Catalonia. However, it does not seem so easy to maintain the fidelity of the elections in an increasingly dense space, especially when the PSOE presents its most progressive discourse and Podemos plans to make Catalonia one of its springboards.

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The campaign is also read in a national key for the PP and Vox. Both speeches raised the Catalan issue, but only as a battering ram against the PSOE. In the last Catalan elections, the PP managed to escape ostracism with fifteen deputies and presented the 9-J as a major plebiscite against Sánchez and the amnesty. Finally, Ciudadanos takes a gamble in what could be the last attempt not to disappear from the map by this group, born in Catalonia in response to nationalism.