The reasoning behind the re-branding process often cited the presenting of a renewed trademark and a desire to disassociate the party from CDC's corruption problems, including those of its founder, Jordi Pujol, which occurred during its dominance of Catalan regional politics.

[29][30] The interior ministry ended up accepting the new proposed name under the PDeCAT label on 29 September,[31][32][33] and it was subsequently ratified by party members in a ballot conducted on 21–22 October 2016.

[37][38] The alliance's success in the election, where it outperformed Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) to become the dominating force within the pro-independence camp, resulted in an increase of influence for Puigdemont within the party.

[51][52] In March 2020, the PDeCAT suggested the establishment of an electoral coalition rather than both parties competing each other,[53] but this proposal went unheeded by the CNxR,[54] and shortly after the negotiation process stalled as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain.

[55] The resumption of talks in June 2020 revealed that the PDeCAT would keep opposing both to dissolve itself and to renounce the JxCat's trademark,[56] while also citing that Puigdemont "had moved too to the left" in the political spectrum as one of the reasons to preserve its identity.

[64][65] This failure in negotiations led to Puigdemont's announcement on 2 July that he would be founding a new political party aimed at bringing together supporters of unilateral independence ahead of the 2021 Catalan regional election, seeing the merger and subsequent dissolution into it of the CNxR and aligned organizations,[66][67] as well as the breaking up of all ties with the PDeCAT.

[86][87][88] As of early September 2020, PDeCAT still retained four legislators in the Parliament of Catalonia, four legislators in the Congress of Deputies, some prominent politicians (including former Catalan president Artur Mas, the chairwoman of the Port of Barcelona Mercè Conesa and the ex-regional minister of Enterprise and Knowledge Àngels Chacón—just removed from office in a cabinet reshuffle by Quim Torra—) as well as a number of mayors, including Marc Solsona (also a Catalan MP), the spokesperson of the party.

[93] The party described itself as Catalanist, independentist, republican, pro-Europeanist,[92] and humanist in its ideological manifesto, defending that Catalonia is a nation with the right of self-determination, whose fixed path to achieve an independent state involves expanding the pro-independence social majority and exhausting all legal venues to reach an agreement "without renouncing the unilateral path to achieve these objectives".