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From 1886 to 2012, the dominant trends of Catalan nationalism were (1) a common consensus of nationalist eclecticism, usually termed “Catalanism”; (2) the primacy of electoral politics during this time period; and (3) the fact that electoral parties, using the ambiguity of “Catalanism”, had to operate side by side with non-ambiguous nationalists, explicit in their objective of subverting the Spanish State, and willing to use force, at least in theory. Although the paramilitaries never had the social weight to act in electoral terms, their capacity to pressure through ideology was significant. Since 2012, however, the open expression of pro-independence sympathies ostensibly became a majority sentiment in Catalan society, causing a shake-up, and a new trend towards mass street politics, oriented or managed by loose “assembly”-type platforms.