New dog, old tricks: strategic moderation after failed secession in the Catalan nationalist right

We know far more about why substate parties embrace secession than about their eventual moderation. This article contributes to this question by tracing Catalan nationalist centre-right parties across five decades through a mixed-method analysis of electoral programmes, parliamentary behaviour and public opinion. Limits to negotiated devolution and political competition explain the secessionist turn of Convergència i Unió (CiU) since 2010, then rebranded as Junts. Yet, Junts has recently shifted from unilateral independence attempts to negotiated devolution and issue diversification. This case illustrates how secessionist parties may moderate after failed secession if institutional opportunities and the party competition context change.