The only debate of the three candidates for the presidency of the ERC, which was held this Tuesday at the party headquarters in Barcelona, focused on criticism of Xavier Godas And Helena Solà has Oriol Junqueras and in his intention to talk about Catalonia more than the internal management of the party, a strategy that he was criticized for respectively by the candidates of Nova Esquerra Nacional and Foc Nou, notably the latter. ERC activism will vote on Saturday between the three candidates. Junqueras, who wants to repeat his position, arrives with the banner of favorite and with the majority of mentions under his arm.
Junqueras considers himself the winner and presented himself in the three-way debate with proposals in terms of an electoral program, leaving aside initiatives for the management of a party that lost the Generalitat after the May elections. In this sense, who was lieutenant of Carles Puigdemont in the Catalan Government in 2017, regretted that “we have not always known how to connect to the problems that concern our society”, as salaries or real estate prices, pointed out.
And he did not hide criticism in this sense from Government of Father Aragonès (ERC), whose owner supports the Godàs list. For example, in the extension of the school voucher to all school children in Catalonia, regardless of income, instead of having invested in the universalization of extracurricular activities or not having sufficiently supported farmers or community industry. In this way, Junqueras (Militància Decidim) distanced himself from the leadership of ERC at the head of the Generalitat.
His strategy was criticized mainly by Solà. "Looks like you’re new, like me," said the Foc Nou candidate, who arrives at the November 30 congress with the least support for the three candidates (468 signatures). Solà was the one who raised the biggest confrontation against Junqueras, whom he held responsible for the loss of the ERC votes and, in a more veiled way, for having left the secessionist demand unresolved. “We are the renewal,” he added, reiterating the idea of relaunching a consultation with activists to break the pact with the CPS.
For his part, Godàs, who, like Solà, proposes that the president of the party not be a candidate for the Generalitat, to prevent institutional positions from “contaminating” the objectives of the ERC, endeavored to present the debate as a presentation to revitalize a training in less emotional hours, even if it is in one of the moments with the greatest representation and influence in public institutions. “What our people want is that let’s guide them into the future and do it from ERC’s own identity,” he said.
During the debate, moderated by the Deputy Secretary for Communications of the ERC, Oriol Duran, who tried to have a debate on the management of the party, beyond the general ideas that the three candidates share, the question of the posters against the Maragall brothers, the doll that appeared in Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona) against Junqueras and various critical internal elements on the management of training from 2017. “I feel responsible for what the party did between 2012 and 2017, when it was fully capable of doing so”, it was declared. » defended Junqueras.
