Oriol Junqueras aspires to reach the extraordinary congress of ERC, which will be held on November 30, with a clear endorsement from the militancy to repeat as president of the formation, despite having left office on Wednesday. The former vice president of the Generalitat gave this Thursday, in a press conference, more details of his plan: he will tour Catalonia, listen to the citizens and the militancy and will then decide whether to present himself to revalidate the position with a new proposal. The objective, he has said, is to reconnect ERC with the social concerns of Catalans. “I’m not in a hurry at all, but I don’t want to give up anything when it comes to helping my country,” said Junqueras, who justifies his decision to temporarily leave the presidency of the party – he will do so after the European elections in June – to to be able to talk “one to one” with the bases. It is not the same path that the general secretary, Marta Rovira, has taken, who yesterday, in a letter in which she announced her resignation from the position, stressed that she will not seek to repeat that responsibility and advocated for new leadership.
Carles Puigdemont, for his part, sees an opportunity in the crisis suffered by ERC. The leader of Junts and candidate for last Sunday’s regional elections called on the independence movement this Thursday to “not waste time with internal divisions.” Puigdemont, who left Spain in 2017 to avoid being tried and is now waiting for the amnesty law to be approved, has appeared from Perpignan (France), where he has considered that Catalonia is experiencing a situation of “national emergency.” . Junts and its leader are trying to extract oil from the bad moment that their rival is suffering in that political space, presenting themselves as the only solid support that the independence movement has. “The reasons for independence are more compelling than ever,” he said. former president.
David Borrat (EFE)
His statements are a way to put pressure on ERC so that this party rules out a tripartite government that makes the socialist Salvador Illa president of the Generalitat. Puigdemont insists that he intends to run for office, despite the fact that he needs a parliamentary pirouette to become president. He would need the support of ERC and the CUP and, in addition, the abstention of the PSC, the party that won the elections with 42 seats, seven more than Puigdemont obtained. In public, Junts maintains that repeating the election would not be a good idea, but Puigdemont himself has acknowledged being “prepared for all eventualities.” If we have to vote again in the fall, he could probably campaign physically in Catalonia, benefiting from the application of the amnesty law.
ERC will have to decide shortly what it will vote for at the investiture of the new president of the Generalitat, whether Illa or Puigdemont appears in that vote. Junqueras has urged the PSC, Junts and Sumar Comuns to reach an agreement among themselves, after “putting obstacles” to the Government of Aragonès in the last legislature. And he wanted to shake off the responsibility of the final meaning of the vote in that investiture: “Decisions are always made by the corresponding bodies,” he pointed out.
Although ERC also insists that they do not want a repeat election in Catalonia, the date chosen for the party congress is significant. Junqueras has clarified that this deadline until November 30 gives room for an uncertain electoral calendar, “[los comicios] that are known and those that are not known, like general ones,” he added.
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Junqueras tries to reposition himself in the internal debate opened after the electoral fiasco of 12-M —ERC collapsed, losing 13 of its 33 deputies— and to which president acting, Pere Aragonès, responded last Monday with the announcement that he was leaving the front line of politics. Junqueras soon sent an open letter in which he expressed his willingness to remain in the leadership of the party. A day later, however, he agreed to leave the presidency, but then suggested that it was a temporary resignation, and has now announced that he will make the final decision after that period of listening to the bases. The former vice president does not believe that this represents a change of script and has denied pressure to take the step, making it clear that he wants to return. “I will only do it if I have explicit endorsement. I want the militancy to tell me if they expect something from me, which may not be the case and it would also be legitimate,” he added.
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