Ernest Maragall has decided to tear up his membership card of Esquerra Republicana this Monday, after the revelations of the last few days about how the posters against him and his brother were created, associating them both with the Alzheimer’s The former ERC candidate for mayor of Barcelona has wanted to separate his decision from the fact that the audio recordings that prove how the party’s involvement in the scandal was attempted to be hidden have been leaked. The former socialist, who had already asked for “organic and personal” responsibilities to be assumed – there are already four disciplinary proceedings underway – now shows his discontent with how the political leadership has managed the crisis and has reaffirmed the need to renew the leadership at the next congress in November and to now dedicate efforts to closing the pact with the PSC.
“As I cannot leave this up in the air, this is where we have come to,” Maragall said, clarifying that he had delayed making this decision public for a few days because he had Covid, saying that he feared that his silence would be read as “complicity.” The formal request to withdraw, he said, is a response to “taking a critical distance” from a “shameful spectacle,” but he reaffirmed that Esquerra must be the “central force of progressive Catalanism” and that he will help in this as just another citizen. The former Acció Exterior councillor and ERC member in 2018, after leaving the PSC in 2012, accepts the explanations given by the management, but stresses that this does not “exempt it from its responsibility” and regrets that the crisis has not been responded to with “maximum speed and exemplary manner.”
The “contrast” campaign, as ERC defined it when the scandal came to light on July 1, dates back to March 2023 and consisted of pasting a series of posters on the streets of the Catalan capital showing images of Pasqual and Ernest Maragall alongside the phrase “Alzheimer’s Out of Barcelona”. The action came at a time when the polls were leading him away from victory and he was being overshadowed by three other candidates. The posters were paid for through a back-office structure and the Mossos, in their investigation, discovered that the evidence pointed to the party.
Maragall had initially placed all responsibility on Tolo Moya, former head of communications for ERC. But the leak last week of audio recordings showing the involvement of other members of the leadership has led the former candidate to now say that there has been poor management and to urge that more responsibilities be clarified. Moya, in an interview with the newspaper Menorca – It’s Daily It was confirmed on Monday that the former deputy minister for strategy, Sergi Sabrià, was responsible for the entire campaign of contrast and the creator of the group of grassroots activists who worked in structure B. Sabrià had resigned from his position in the Government a couple of weeks ago, but insisted that he was not responsible.
According to his account, he is a mere “scapegoat” to cover up for some young people who had designed the action that eluded the former president’s Alzheimer’s disease without the backing of the communications leadership and who were arrested by the Mossos after the complaint filed by Maragall himself. ERC offered them up to 50,000 euros to buy their silence.
However, the former leader of the Republicans in the City Council has considered the episode closed and has shown himself to be a deep defender of the values that the party defends and has indirectly supported the negotiation with the socialists for the investiture of Salvador Illa. “For me, this is closed [el caso de los carteles]what ERC is assuming as a global responsibility is much more interesting and important for this country.” He has also reaffirmed that he feels “identified with the explicit process of renewal” led by the current secretary general of the party, Marta Rovira, and that puts him in opposition to former president Oriol Junqueras, who retired from the leadership of the Republicans at the beginning of the month and hopes to present his candidacy again in Congress in November.
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