The alternative candidacy to Oriol Junqueras to lead the ERC, which will be called “Nova Esquerra Nacional”, will be presented this Thursday in Barcelona. The relatives of the secretary general Marta Rovira (who will not run again) will be made public while the date of the congress remains uncertain.
Although it was initially scheduled for November 30 due to the uncertainty about a possible electoral repeat, Junqueras’s relatives have asked to bring forward the congress, considering that, by statute, it must take place within three months of the resignation of the June 10 former president and candidate to revalidate the position.
After a meeting this Wednesday between representatives of the Junqueras candidacy and the interim leadership of the ERC, it was decided to wait for a legal report from the party’s Guarantees Commission before making a definitive decision on the date of the conclave, whose celebration coincides with a Year An important moment for the government of Salvador Illa and the government of Pedro Sánchez is the presentation and negotiation of the respective budgets.
The response of the guarantees commission, ERC sources indicated, will allow the congress “not to raise any legal doubts” and that the chosen date guarantees the rights of all activists.
While waiting to determine the date of the congress, the conflict between the two candidates for control of the party is shaping up to be a new struggle between Junqueras and those close to Marta Rovira, the tandem that had controlled the party during the last decade but which broke up after the last electoral crises.
Junqueras will present his candidacy for the presidency of the party on September 21 at an event at the La Passió de Olesa theater in Montserrat (Barcelona), which will also be attended by former Foreign Minister Raül Romeva. The event will serve to show support for the former president, among whom are MEP Diana Riba, former minister Bernat Solé and MP Ana Balsera.
The former president and re-election candidate has been meeting with local officials and activists for weeks in an effort to secure a clear victory in Congress with the help of grassroots members, and he hopes to bring together more than a thousand people at his presentation in late September.
The alternative candidacy, which has not yet announced its candidate for the presidency of the party, will take its first steps this Thursday in Barcelona. Among the supporters of replacing Junqueras are former councilors such as Teresa Jordà or Laura Vilagrà as well as parliamentarians such as Marta Vilalta.
