In August 2017, Catalonia was hit by a jihadist attacks, a few weeks before a referendum on self-determination was to be held in the region. These events not only intensified the political and social dynamics between Catalonia and the Spanish central government but also served as a canvas for the reconfiguration of national identities in a broken public and media post-attack space.The paper delves into the role of "empty signifiers” and "floating signifiers" — concepts drawn from the political and semiotic theories of Ernesto Laclau (1996) and Claude Lévi-Strauss (1973), respectively — in constructing national identities. Empty and floating signifiers are a specific signifiers devoid of specific content but which, for this reason, can respond to the dissatisfaction prevalent in society while simultaneously holding out the prospect of an impossible fulfilment. Through these lenses, the study scrutinizes how Catalan and Spanish identities were articulated, negotiated, and configurated in the media narratives, anchored to the empty signifiers of "freedom" for Catalan case and "unity" for Spanish case. Employing a semiotic and narrative approach, the research analyses a curated corpus of press articles and images from leading Catalan (Diari Ara, El Periódico, El Punt Avui, La Vanguardia) and Spanish (ABC, El País, El Mundo, La Razón) medias during the critical period between the August jihadist attacks and the October Catalan referendum (18/08/2017-01/10/2017).