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The speed of the break-up between the Republican Left (ERC)  and Together for Catalonia (Junts) is increasing so rapidly that in just 48 hours the most plausible option, a Catalan coalition government for the next four years, has become just a memory, whether or not this has been realized in the party led by Carles Puigdemont and Jordi Sànchez, which continues to reiterate the same message. Although in politics the match is not over until the final second, presidential candidate Pere Aragonès made it very clear when he opted for a single-party government and his party has said the same thing even more forcefully: a single-colour government, or a repeat election in mid-July.

If things continue on the path they took on Monday - with the Catalan Socialists (PSC) and Junts both refusing to facilitate the investiture of Aragonès, the first as winners of the election and the second adding a nuance to their statements that have ended up making it easier for ERC to take the word - the game to be played over the remaining days until the deadline for electing a new Catalan president on May 26th will have a tension level hitherto unknown in the pro-independence space. So distant from the euphoria of the February 14th election day, in which the three parties - ERC, Junts and the CUP - produced an historic result: almost 52% of the vote and 74 seats out of a possible 135.

To understand the importance of this milestone, it can be equated perfectly with the recent election in Scotland which the Scottish National Party (SNP) won for the fourth time in a row with a result that admits no response. Nicola Sturgeon's SNP was left just one seat from an absolute majority of 64 seats which, together with the eight MPs won by the Greens, also in favour of a referendum, have clearly put the ball in the court of the British prime minister, Boris Johnson. And that is the only thing that matters.

But let's come back to Catalonia. Does the independence movement still have something up its sleeve to rebuild the unity that today seems absolutely destroyed? As on previous occasions of great tension between the two main pro-independence parties, will the civil society groups Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly end up stepping in to stitch things up as much as they can?

If one listens to the ambient noise of the last few hours, it is clear that this won't happen. Among other reasons, because as often happens - and as the saying goes - there's good fishing to be had in troubled waters. Parties such as En Común Podem, which until a few hours ago seemed to have been evicted from power, and were also opposed to the formula for government proposed by ERC with Junts and the CUP, now have no objection to ensuring that, if the votes of Junts are given for free, they are welcome. In politics there are very few things that are free, even if one initially might have the opposite impression. It's like those master strokes, which require a level of skill which at times just cannot be produced. The fog has settled in over the pro-independence world.