The new secretary general is reinforced by the support of the militancy in his tandem with the president of the Parliament
In a conclave of self-assertion against the State and the ERC, the new leadership is commissioned by Puigdemont to maintain the combative path
Laura Borras Y Jordi Turull are now formally the new president and general secretary of Junts. But they are with only 29% and 30% support respectively of the total of the 6,000 possible voters of the party. They have achieved 78.5% and 92% of the votes cast at the party’s congress, in a context of low turnout. They are after a placid and self-affirming conclave but with an alarmingly low level of participation in the voting (it has not even reached 40% of the census), which tries to unite positions after two years of certain internal anxiety and at a time when that ERC holds the presidency of the Generalitat for the first time and Junts is playing it in the next municipal elections. Both have participated in a conference in Argelers (France) marked by Puigdemont’s combative message that draws the line for the future: anchoring oneself in the execution of independence with a strategy opposed to that of ERC. Of course, without leaving the Government.
In the voting, which had no mystery because there was no internal competition, Turull, with 1,854 supports, has managed to surpass Borràs in the esteem of the militancy, who has remained at 1,776. It also highlights, in addition to the low turnout (just over 2,000 people voted out of a census of 6,000), the low level of support for the new organization secretary, David Torrent (918 absolute votes, 15% of the census, 46% of the votes cast), as well as aurora madaula (919 votes), one of the four new vice-presidents. In the case of Torrents, despite the fact that by regulation he would not reach the minimum required 50%, a political agreement -for all the members of the new executive to enter- makes him achieve the position.
Turull: “Either independence or independence”
Turull has stated that he wants to be general secretary to be useful and to complete the independence process and go “to all”. He has also drawn a party that is useful, all in an optimistic and outstretched message. “We are here more together and committed than ever”, she has proclaimed. “Now the objective is independence or independence”, he has summed up in his intervention. “It is an urgency to take action”, he has finished, insisting on the need to “put the direct” and move on to the facts. A message, like Puigdemont’s morning, which has not been completed with specifics regarding this proposal. In any case, a speech, like all those of the Argelers congress, dedicated to encouraging independence against the “repression” of the State. And in terms of agreements, a message of openness -in a party that signed a text against any alliance with the PSC, with which the Barcelona Provincial Government governs- to the alliances: “If we have to agree in order to move forward, we will agree, but service of Catalonia, never Catalonia at the service of the pacts”
For his part, Borràs has made a self-criticism assuming the “mistakes” made, the lack of pro-independence unity and for this reason he has demanded to “start over” with self-affirmation. And although, like Turull, he has defended that Junts is a government party, he has added a direct order: “Make the Government more ambitious nationally, manage the needs but also keep in mind that you have to govern with an independence vision & rdquor ;. Borràs has assumed that “the repression has had its effect” and has admitted discouragement, a message in an internal key after two years of complex internal navigation. All in a speech in which he has avoided his judicial situation and has not quoted jordi sanchez. And that he has left a pearl, in his criticism of the State and the option of a right-wing government: “What will the extreme right do that the Spanish left has not done?” He asked himself in relation to Catalonia.
Puigdemont sets the pace despite leaving office
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All this in a placid conclave in which Carles Puigdemont he has left the presidency but not the leadership of the party. And he has done it by sending a very clear message in the central intervention of the congress: charge unapologetically against Esquerra’s pactism and oppose the State with a combative message so that his party does not fall into the temptation of calming down in the Government. But therein lies the difficulty, because a few hours later the ‘former minister’ Toni Comin he claimed to turn the Government “for once and for all” into a “confrontational tool” with the State. “We have not come to heat chairs, for that there are already other games“, has settled.
For his part, the also outgoing Secretary General, jordi sanchez, has preferred to underline the need for pro-independence unity and unity within Junts, a party that has experienced moments of anxiety under his mandate. “Enough of looking for external excuses because we cannot expect anything good from the State, let us be capable of assuming the responsibility that we all have and the people in charge of the institutions“. And addressing the rest of the pro-independence parties and entities, he stated: “Let’s go back to work to find the strategic unity that we don’t have today“. Sànchez has attacked, like Puigdemont, against the path of dialogue with the State, but he has not loaded so much ink on it as on internal cohesion.