A lot of water has passed under the bridge after, in May 2019, Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras will star in the independence struggle in the European elections. He former president, then installed in Belgium to avoid Spanish justice, won by 254,000 votes over a republican leader in the middle of a trial in the Supreme Court. In Catalonia alone, Junts and ERC added 1.7 million votes, close to 50% of the total. What they themselves had called “the path of exile” was institutionally formalized: using the speaker of the European Chamber in the fight against the Spanish State, which they accused of being undemocratic and violating fundamental rights.
With the final approval in Congress, on the 30th, of the amnesty law for those accused of the process, this avenue of protest and the rhetoric that accompanied judicial struggles such as parliamentary immunity are amortized. In the case of Puigdemont, furthermore, his decision to follow the Republicans in putting aside the unilateral route and agreeing on the investiture of Pedro Sánchez also put an end to a certain way of staging the confrontation. Hence, facing the new European electoral contest, Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Catalunya are forced to recalibrate speeches and rethink their international strategy. A company in which, in addition, the management of the investment of the future intersects president.
At the outset, there is a change of faces. Taking over from Puigdemont in Europe is Toni Comín. Esquerra, which makes a joint list with Bildu and BNG, relies on the popularity of its number 2, TV3 meteorologist Tomàs Molina, to alleviate the discretion of the head of the list Diana Riba. The tweaks in the speeches are still to be matured. Its content, from the outset, is tainted by the game of alliances between parties essential to be able to achieve a majority in Parliament, after the intricate distribution of seats left by the regional elections of May 12.
The PSC is trying to take advantage of the failure of the independence movement in Catalonia but without being aggressive so as not to anger potential partners. In a context of rapprochement between rival formations, the campaign is announced as low voltage. In ERC, for example, the need to adapt the message to the rest of the coalition partners ends up leaving “the right to self-determination” that Brussels can defend as the highest common denominator. Riba made it clear, at the rally at the start of the campaign, that this peripheral leftist bloc has fascism in the heart of Europe as its enemy. And domestically, sociovergence: “If Puigdemont agrees to his presidency with the PSC, we will not block it, but let them come to an agreement,” he assured.
In an interview on Cadena Ser, Comín yesterday defended the former president’s commitment to attempting the investiture, and warned that if the PSC does not facilitate it (abstaining in the second round, despite being the most voted force) there will be a blockade in Parliament and a repetition electoral: “we will have to see each other in elections,” he added. “We are going to fight for the investiture because it is consistent with the electoral result,” Comín insisted again and again.
Beyond the hot potato of the investiture, Comín also tries to cover the consequences of Puigdemont’s pragmatic turn. Support for the independence option remains considerable in Catalonia despite the great loss of support on 12-M. And Junts per Catalunya, a group that won in that bloc, relies for this campaign on the figure of its leader. That is why the Junts candidate for the European elections pivots his electoral campaign on the commitment to give “continuity” to the work of the former president in Europe, continuing with the “internationalization of the Catalan cause.”
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As happened in the last Catalan elections, certain rhetoric that recalls the most confrontational moment does not agree with the path we want to follow. Comín, yesterday on Cadena SER, accepted that Junts’ fight for officialdom involves having the central government in favor. “There is a time when negotiations of this magnitude need direct involvement from the heads of government. Well, this is a letter that the Spanish Government has yet to use. And if they have to use it, they will have to use it,” he explained.
Esquerra also insists on the argument of personalism on which Junts rests. Regarding a party focused on its leader, Riba insists on showing herself as the leader of the independence movement that is useful to the citizens of Europe. A line where, for the moment, she has had to avoid some verbal excess from Molina and the internal crisis of the Republicans. His electoral rivals question whether Puigdemont’s five years as an MEP have been very prolific, beyond dedicating himself to himself. ERC published a statistic that includes the laws and reports that each Catalan MEP has negotiated in the 2019-2024 legislature. There are 41 in the case of Diana Riba, from ERC; 22 by Jordi Cañas, Ciudadanos; 12 from Javi López, PSC, and 4 from Dolors Montserrat, PP. Puigdemont’s balance is 0. Junts maintains that the former Catalan president has Puigdemont has registered 202 parliamentary questions and has promoted more than 1,100 amendments.
In the ranks of both parties it is widely shared that these four years there has been talk of the independence of Catalonia like never before in Europe. Clara Ponsatí, who distanced herself from Puigdemont after the ruling on immunity, is the leading voice of a certain more essentialist part of the independence movement that regrets that after so much work the “repressive” Government is being whitewashed with the amnesty. Republicans, for their part, believe that there is another more delicate point to manage. “If we want any State to at least look at the Catalan portfolio, it is necessary to exceed 50% of the pro-independence vote in conventional elections, where both those in favor and those against participate, in a solid and sustained manner over time,” sources from its leadership explain. On 9-J the independence movement could face its fourth consecutive defeat in that regard
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