If the posters against the Maragall brothers, paid for by a B structure of ERC in the last municipal elections, hovered over the debate on the investiture pact with the PSC, on the road to the congress that will elect the future leadership of the Republicans this controversy has all the numbers of having a leading role. The general secretary, Marta Rovira, hinted this Monday in a long statement that the entourage of Oriol Junqueras, former president of the party and who hopes to repeat in the position again in the conclave of November, would be behind the leak of some messages made public today on Catalunya Ràdio and that would suggest that she benefited from the campaign that demanded “getting Alzheimer’s out of Barcelona”, showing the photos of Pasqual Maragall, former president socialist suffering from this neurological disease, and his brother Ernest, who was an ERC candidate for the City Council of the capital of Catalonia in the last municipal elections.
According to the screenshots released by the Catalan public broadcaster, on March 9, 2023, the day the posters appeared hanging in party headquarters, several ERC officials commented on the situation in a chat on the Signal messaging app called We are Barcelona“It is such an aggressive campaign that if we denounce it publicly we might even be able to get a few votes of solidarity,” wrote Rovira, who was still on the run in Switzerland. Her opinion was supported with a “+1,000” by Carles Foguet, former communications director for the Republicans who was in the Government. At that time it was not public that these posters had come from a B structure of the party and even today the internal investigation is seeking to find out the level of involvement of the leadership in this campaign. In another message, from a later date, Rovira asked to know if the B campaign “was activated.” And despite this, on several occasions since the case of the posters was made public, the general secretary herself has denied having any knowledge of this type of activity.
Rovira has veiledly pointed to Junqueras’ entourage as responsible for this new leak. An accusation that Junqueras’ office describes as “false.” The release of these messages has two “very clear” intentions, according to the general secretary. One is to publicly attribute responsibility for the poster campaign “to people who did not do it and knew nothing” and the other is to use them as a weapon in the race to elect the new leadership: “The unfortunate posters have become a real campaign to contrast a candidate’s position.” [al congreso] “to claim that they have nothing to do with it and to point to other culprits in the party leadership” says Rovira. “I also have screenshots [de pantalla]private comments and conversations that would compromise more than one colleague, but I have sworn not to fall into the temptation of falling into the same thing,” Rovira adds in a long letter published on her social networks. The interim leader of ERC has said that, if appropriate, she would be willing to take this evidence to the ethics channel, one of the party’s internal instruments. Currently, there are four internal files opened following the poster scandal, in one of the cases the infraction would imply expulsion from the membership.
In July, Tolo Moya, who was the director of communications for ERC and one of those investigated by the party, stated in a letter that he had evidence that could implicate Rovira herself in the plot behind the B campaigns. The journalist, now close to Junqueras, has always maintained that he was being used as a scapegoat for the scandal. Shortly after this threat, some edited audio recordings were released, where it was also made clear that other members of the party leadership, such as the head of finances, Jordi Roig, or the deputy secretary of communications, Oriol Durán, had knowledge of the matter of the posters.
“It is very curious that now that I have decided not to continue as general secretary and am committed to the renewal of the party’s organisation and strategy, I am the sole person responsible for all the errors and failures. And I have to assume that the shared, agreed and known work teams are only attributed to me,” Rovira concludes. The general secretary returned last July from Switzerland, where she fled six years ago to avoid the action of Spanish justice. From there, however, she remained in her position. She assumed the leadership of the party in June, when Junqueras (pardoned in June 2021) resigned after criticism for the poor results of the electoral cycle, but assuring that he would run for re-election.
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Junqueras is the visible face of Militància Decidim, the candidacy that he will officially present on the 21st in Olesa de Montserrat. Rovira has said that he will not stand for any position and, in fact, is asking for a renewal of faces at the head of the party. Those who share this idea, but without Rovira in the front line, have worked on the Nova Esquerra Nacional list. It has been this schism between the Junqueras-Rovira tandem that had governed the party since 2011 that has led to having to call the Congress. Two other candidacies also want to compete for the reins: the one that will be announced this Tuesday -Colectiu 1-O- and Foc Nou, where the former deputy in Madrid Alfred Bosch is and who has intervened this Monday in the controversy, claiming to be the only possibility of renewal in the face of “the backpack of the two official options.”
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