ERC presidential candidate Oriol Junqueras has pledged to “save” the party, with Elisenda Alamany as number two, amid harsh criticism from the sector of secretary general Marta Rovira for “betraying” the principles of the formation through “structure B”.
This was highlighted during the presentation event this Saturday at the Teatro de la Passió d’Olesa de Montserrat (Barcelona) of “Militància Decidim”, the candidacy led by Junqueras to reconquer the leadership of the ERC, where personalities such as the leader Raül Romeva or the MEP Diana Riba.
The one who was president of ERC until a few months ago has committed to “saving and saving” the party after the “shame” he claims to feel due to the existence of “parallel organisms” unrelated to the party’s own leaders, in reference to the party’s Structure B that served to organize false flag campaigns, such as that of the Alzheimer’s posters against the brothers Ernest and Pasqual Maragall.
During the presentation of his campaign, the candidate for the presidency of ERC announced that Elisenda Alamany, currently leader of ERC in the Barcelona City Council, would be his secretary general, at an event attended by around 1,300 people, according to the organizers.
In his speech, he stressed that his project “is born from the basics” and that his will is to “save and save” the ERC, “to put it back at the service of the country”, and he pledged “not to allow himself to be lectured by those who have never gone to hang or take down posters.
In his speech, he asked for “sincere forgiveness” from the Republican members, after having assured that during the Catalan electoral campaign of December 2017, the one after the application of 155, “they did not know how to sufficiently value the 1-O, the 3-O”.
“Those who had the opportunity, the responsibility, who had the duty, preferred to devote themselves to something else, preferred to communicate something else,” he lamented.
Immediately afterwards, he attacked the creation of a “Group B” that would make political decisions unofficially and operate “not only outside the party presidency, but also outside the National Executive and the National Council.”
“Whoever dared to do this has betrayed our principles,” exclaimed the Republican candidate, after mentioning campaigns such as that of a doll that imitated Oriol Junqueras himself hanging from a bridge next to a message that said “rot in prison”, or even sending mariachis to the headquarters of JxCat.
Furthermore, he stated that the situation that the formation is currently experiencing after this type of practice is not deserved by “the vast majority of ERC activists”: “I know that the majority of you are outraged, it is a legitimate feeling, you have all the reason in the world.”
Junqueras pledged not only to “clean up” but also to “sew and re-sew” the game, “with thread and needle and with as many sewing machines as necessary.”
“We will not abandon this goal, but I want to ask you a favor, I want to make a request, I want us to commit to not sewing up any wound that we have not first cleaned,” he stressed.
On this subject, he added: “No one has the right to ask us to demonstrate that everything that embarrassed us did not happen.”
The ERC presidential candidate called for “strengthening all militancy, dignifying the decision-making bodies, the National Council and the National Executive of the party, and putting an end to all parallel bodies” that have led to the current situation.
For his part, Alamany stressed that “it will be the time of the ERC again,” while encouraging the party to lead “the national discourse of this country.”
“We are not where we would like to be, we already know that, but when there is a setback, there is no point in creating composure. What we must do is prepare ourselves politically, organizationally to be stronger: renew the strategy, the strength and a strong, open and winning leadership,” he said.
