[9] Maragall had already ruled out running within the PSC's lists for the upcoming 2012 Catalan regional election,[10] after a history of breaking party discipline throughout the legislature in favour both of President Artur Mas's proposal of a fiscal agreement with Spain on 25 July 2012,[11] and of a referendum on self-determination to be held during the next legislature on 27 September.

[12] On 11 October 2012, Maragall announced his intention to leave the PSC and resume the Catalan Party of Europe, and old party founded in 1998 by his brother Pasqual, with the aim of putting together a strong leftist, Catalanist and sovereignist force, joined by other members from the PSC and from the late Citizens for Change platform that supported Pasqual Maragall and later José Montilla's bids in 1999, 2003 and 2006.

[2][13] On 5 November, a public meeting was held under the Esquerra i País slogan (English: "Left and Country") and attended, among others, by Maragall himself, former Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) leader Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira, Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV) MEP Raül Romeva and secretaries-general from ERC and ICV Marta Rovira and Joan Herrera, where there was a vindication for creation of a political project uniting the Catalan left—in a similar fashion to The Olive Tree coalition in Italy—following the 25 November regional election.

[15][16] Maragall also advocated for his party supporting a "Yes" choice in the event of a self-determination referendum being held in Catalonia,[17] and supported the formation of an "unitary list" of pro-Catalan independence parties ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election.

[19] Shortly after, the party reached an agreement with ERC to form an electoral alliance for the 2014 European Parliament election under the umbrella of The Left for the Right to Decide,[20] after which Maragall proposed in June "an agreement for the reconstruction of the Socialist space and reuniting the Catalan left" including ERC, ICV and dissidents from the PSC, but also the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).