The Council for the Republic, the political instrument of the Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont, and the government ministers who accompanied him following the dissolution of his executive under article 155 —Toni Comín, Clara Ponsatí and Lluís Puig (Meritxell Serret has other functions as a delegate of the Catalan government in Brussels)— has begun to chart its course this weekend in the EU capital. It is late to get going, a fact partly explained by the complexity of exile and the arrest of Puigdemont last spring in Germany, but also by the differences between the two major pro-independence parliamentary groupings, Together for Catalonia (JxCat) and the Republican Left (ERC).
The anniversary of last year's proclamation of the Catalan Republic on October 27th marked a certain shift in the relationship between these two groups, and now the start of the hunger strike by four of Catalonia's political prisoners has served, in practice, to bring ERC and JxCat together, despite the initial disagreements that existed due to their different views. Now, Catalan politics looks especially intently at December 21st, the next big date in the calendar, which marks the anniversary of the 2017 election victory and which the Spanish government would like to outshine by using the date to hold a cabinet meeting in Barcelona, a highly untimely initiative that may end up being a real problem for Pedro Sánchez.
The Council for the Republic has a lot of work to do. Already, with the internationalization of the conflict which is underway in many settings, but in particular in the EU countries, the agenda is endless. In addition, taking into account the trial of the political prisoners in the Spanish Supreme Court, likely to start in January or February, the Council for the Republic can take on the part of the work that the Catalan government doesn't end up doing.
In short, this political initiative by Carles Puigdemont will be seen, as time goes on, as more than just a minor actor in the complex world of Catalan politics. Treating it in any other way is to ignore the recent past and to consider that Catalan politics will remain for a lot longer in the tense calm that has dominated over recent months.