On a human basis, it would be completely understandable if Artur Mas threw in the towel, after the personal and bloody hostility that he has received. Politically, it would be an error if the independence movement as a group forced, accepted, or demanded that Mas step aside to avoid the elections. (And the political effect of his own personal decision, while respectable, would be more or less the same.) Because the issue is not Mas. And it would not end with Mas. Those who want to unseat Mas see it as a necessary step-- but not the last nor the definitive one-- to exclude the political traditions, ideology, and social sectors that Mas represents from the independence process. Some are hostile to independence, because they know that without these sectors the process will sink. Others, while conditional supporters of independence, would want it clothed only in other ideologies, political traditions, and social sectors, and the world that Mas represents is in their way. They don´t want to unseat him for who he is, but for representing what he represents. And if causing the fall of Mas doesn´t cut off the sectors that he represents from the independence process, they would want it even more. Up to achieving their objective. An objective that a broad-based independence process cannot allow.