More than a gesture

It's no small feat. Salvador Illa has ended up doing what many didn't expect: he sat down with Carles Puigdemont in Brussels. A gesture laden with symbolism, risks, and consequences. It didn't seem to be his cup of tea. Nor did it seem to be on his agenda when he took over as president of the Generalitat. But the moment eventually arrived. And it happened because, like his great role model, Pedro Sánchez, Illa has once again known how to make a virtue out of necessity.

He wasn't obligated. He could have played at letting time pass, hiding behind the rhetoric of dialogue without putting any thought or thought into it. But he did. Wearing himself down with a segment of the electorate that also can't be ignored, with supposedly patriotic criticism from the most pro-Spanish camp, and with obvious misgivings from the pro-independence camp. For some, it was an unacceptable move. For others, it was insufficient. But for a majority of Catalan citizens, it was surely a necessary step to begin to break our politics out of the loop.

Neither Illa's visit to Puigdemont nor the Diada can be limited to mere gestures.

The president knows it's not enough. He admitted this in this Sunday's interview with Jordi Juan in La Vanguardia . There, he made it clear that he's willing to go all the way to amnesty. Puigdemont must be able to return, and Junqueras must be able to aspire to be a candidate. Powerful words that require commensurate concreteness.

How far does this "until the end" go? What is the real limit of this commitment? Illa cannot wait for time, or the end of the Spanish legislature, to resolve what he himself already recognizes as the evident abnormality of the current situation.

Therefore, Brussels' gesture is important, but it cannot end there. Just as this Thursday's Diada cannot be reduced to a symbolic ritual. If Catalan politics wants to regain centrality and ambition, it must go beyond the liturgy, the photo ops, and the headlines. It needs to set a horizon. Not only in the realm of day-to-day government work, but also in a national reconstruction capable of projecting normalcy and self-esteem to all Catalans.

Like Ariadne with her thread in the mythical labyrinth of the Minotaur, Illa knows that courage is not enough to face seemingly closed circuits. It's necessary to leave a clear trail that guides a collective escape, because without a guiding thread, the gesture could get lost in the current mess in which we all remain trapped.

That's Illa's challenge. And he won't have to face it alone. The real political competition, the one that goes beyond the noise, will be determined by who is capable of challenging him for leadership in building the country he must lead toward a true "normality" and pilot. And that must happen before the next Catalan elections, when it will be evaluated.

But now the playing field is starting to change. And Illa has made the first move. More than a gesture, it's a bet. What will the others' be? Pay attention to the speeches on the Diada and what they will do on the ground from now on, by action or inaction.