Without major differences with respect to the strategic project, but with an express desire to prevent the continuity of the leadership that has led ERC in recent years. The alternative candidacy to that led by Oriol Junqueras was presented today, although still without a visible leader, which foreshadows as the main burden of a project now disadvantaged compared to that led by the former president of the party.
The main driver of the candidacy is not so much a strategic shift as the retirement of the former leadership. “We are not a project born around a person, but around ideas. The organization should not be at the service of a leadership, on the contrary, that is our difference,” explained one of the platform’s spokespersons, a former advisor to the Generalitat for climate action. Teresa Jordanwho was yesterday morning the main spokesperson and is prefigured as one of the faces that could lead the project, which also includes the current spokesperson of the party, Raquel Sans, who has just abandoned this responsibility to participate in an active action in the candidacy. The deputy Alba Camps and the mayor of Manresa (Barcelona), Marc Aloy, also appeared yesterday as the visible faces of a project that claims the “choral direction”.
The application is called New National Esquerra and it is expected that in the coming days other names may be added, since, for example, some of the former government advisers who signed the manifesto critical of Junqueras requesting the renewal remain for the moment in the background.
“We are neither Junqueristas nor Roviristas,” Jordà explained in an attempt to alleviate the climate of confrontation in an internal process that, if there is no agreement with the rival candidacy, will be inevitable. They do not consider themselves roviristas, but the objective of the candidacy is to prevent Junqueras from regaining the presidency. Marta Rovirastill secretary general, has already announced that she does not plan to run again at the congress initially scheduled for November, allowing opponents of Junqueras to raise the banner of renewal. They have been defined as roviristas, although they assure that they did not play an active role in the initiative.
At all times, Nova Esquerra Nacional spokespeople have affirmed that they claim the legacy of the previous leadership and have stressed that they do not understand the future of the ERC without both, although they have made it clear that in “different roles” from those they have held so far. In this sense, the platform’s spokespeople explain that they do not refuse to talk about Oriol Junqueras’ candidacy, but based on the fact that their main reason for being is “leadership renewal“At present, no agreement is in sight if Junqueras does not step down, and it is likely that in the coming weeks the pressure for him to abandon the candidacy in favour of a project that combines the two projects could grow.
Thus, the open debate within the ERC is not so much about strategies as about people, and in this sense, in the candidacy presented yesterday, it was clarified that the decision adopted by the party in a tight context internal vote The support for the investiture of Salvador Illa (PSC) as president, nor the line of collaboration with the PSOE in Congress, are not in question. Xavier Godàs, former mayor of Vilassar de Dalt (Barcelona), another spokesperson, stressed that the candidacy includes people who defended the yes and no to the investiture of Illa, but that, as a “disciplined party, the agreements are” they must comply with.
However, the candidacy recognizes that a “strategic change” is necessary to reconnect with citizens after a negative last electoral cycle, without this implying, for want of knowing more, a fundamental change. Godàs stressed the need to put the “nation” at the center of the project, in what could be read as a warning to the strategy Recent ERC, with a more pragmatic profile. However, they stressed that their independence movement does not imply giving up the management of the “in-between”, precisely one of the strategic lines in which Junqueras, as well as Rovira, justified, for example, the line of collaboration with the PSOE. The concept of Catalan Countries was also used yesterday, something that the previous leadership had more or less abandoned.
That being said, the strategic differences between his project and that of Junqueras seem more nuanced. And what is being broadcast now is a confrontation of peopleteams and with a different vision of what the internal organization should be, more open according to the so-called renewal candidacy, far from the “personalisms” that they claim to question.
Opposite Nova Esquerra Nacional will be the Militància Decidim project, led by Junqueras, whose presentation has already been announced for September 21 at an event in which former councilor Raül Romeva will participate. Junqueras, after the evil 12-M election result and faced with pressure from pro-renewal activists, he announced his intention to continue leading the party by running again for president at the congress at the end of November. To do this, and following the example of Pedro Sánchez in his attempt to regain control of the PSOE after being forced to resign, Junqueras has been touring Catalonia all summer, meeting with activists, in what he defines as a “process of active listening.”
Now, the most urgent thing is to know if the date of the congress scheduled for November 30 is maintained or brought forward, as required by Junqueras’ candidacy. It is expected that a decision will be made without too much delay, and for this a legal report has been ordered and the Guarantees Commission must make a proposal. The renewal candidacy has already made it clear that it is not in favour of moving forward, especially when, as we could see yesterday, it still does not have a defined direction. Whether in November or before, Esquerra, outside the Generalitat, and surpassed by Junts as the main pro-independence brand, is facing a decisive moment.
