Ever since its inception, the party struggled to maintain the political and electoral space formerly held by the late CDC. Ahead of the 2017 Catalan regional election and the exceptional circumstances around its celebration, the PDeCAT proposed ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont as their leading candidate, at the helm of an electoral alliance centered around the candidate under the Together for Catalonia (JxCat) label and including Puigdemont-aligned non-PDeCAT members such as Jordi Sànchez or eventual Catalan president Quim Torra. 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. On 9 January 2018, Artur Mas resigned as PDeCAT president, citing disagreements with Puigdemont's plan for independence. Ahead of the party's general assembly on 21–22 July 2018, Puigdemont forced Marta Pascal's renounce as PDeCAT's coordinator-general, resulting in the appointment of a new leadership—with David Bonheví becoming new party president (replacing Munté, who had acceded the post after Mas's resignation) and Míriam Nogueras as vice-president—more supportive of Puigdemont's strategy. Concurrently, Puigdemont established his own political platform, the National Call for the Republic (CNxR), intending for the PDeCAT and its political structure to be eventually merged into it. One of Pascal's last decisions as coordinator-general of the PDeCAT was to support the motion of no confidence on the government of Mariano Rajoy that saw Pedro Sánchez replace Rajoy as Prime Minister of Spain on 1 June 2018, against Puigdemont's directions.