Dissatisfied with the performance of Lliga, rated low by the new nationalist party, the first central committee was formed by Jaume Bofill i Mates, President, Lluis Nicolau d'Olwer, Antoni Rovira i Virgili, Carlos Jordán, Ramon d'Abadal i Vinyals and Leandre Cervera.
The party would become the largest in Catalonia following the June 1923 provincial elections, signalling a leftward shift in Catalan nationalism which was previously dominated by the conservative Regionalist League.
The party's more left-wing factions, led by Antoni Rovira i Virgili, would leave in 1927 to create Acció Republicana de Catalunya.
[citation needed] After the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the party was a signatory to the Pact of San Sebastián (1930), represented by Manuel Carrasco Formiguera.
Lluís Nicolau d'Olwer, appointed to the Provisional Government of the Republic, headed into hiding for Niceto Alcalá-Zamora.