The act of Esquerra in Badalona has had as a common thread the repeated criticism of Junts per Cataluña
He President of the Generalitat Pere Aragonès, has charged this Thursday against the “sectarianism and partisanship” by JxCat in Badalona and has asked to concentrate the vote in ERC in that city, since the Republicans are the only guarantee of “stopping” the popular Xavier García Albiol on May 28. The Esquerra act in Badalona has had as its common thread the repeated criticism of Junts per Catalunya, after the mayor of that party, David Torrents, stated yesterday that if he had to choose between helping the Republican candidate Àlex Montornès to be sworn in as mayor or let the ex-mayor of the PP govern, he would have no doubts: “Let García Albiol govern.”
Given the commotion generated by his words, Torrents (also Secretary of Organization of JxCat and trusted leader of Laura Borràs) later qualified his statements and assured that Albiol “will not govern Badalona if it depends on JxCayou“But this rectification has been of little use to ERC, which in its act this afternoon in Badalona has gone out in a storm against JxCat: the reproaches have followed one another in the voice of Aragonès, the Minister Laura Vilagrà, the former Minister Raül Romeva or the Àlex Montornès himself. “I want to make it clear from the start”, Aragonès pointed out barely two minutes after the start of his speech. “Whoever wants to stop Albiol, vote for ERC. All the other options raise doubts, all the other options are unclear. When Albiol had to be stopped, we have been there. Let no one doubt May 28.”
Without directly citing JxCat, the Catalan president has made it clear that his party “will not accept lessons in coherence, conviction or commitment from those who, due to sectarianism or partisanship, actively or passively, would be willing to let a populist mayor pass first who wants to break the cohesion of this city, to prevent there being an ERC mayor”. “As it has become clear, because he has said it – he has continued -, we have one more reason to ask that the progressive, independentist and republican vote must concentrate all its strength and will on the candidacy of Montornès”. Because, the president has remarked, the former popular mayor represents “the promotion of hatred, division and suspicion of the neighbor”; Along the same lines, the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagra, has stressed that ERC “never in life” will allow Badalona to “go back to the past and to Mr. Albiol”. “We want left-wing governments”, has claimed the number two of the Catalan government.
also his own Montornes, the involuntary protagonist of the controversy, has made JxCat’s attitude ugly, alluding to Torrents’ campaign slogan, which promises on its electoral poster to “leave your skin”. “Some say that in this campaign they would leave their skin… but they have left credibility,” said the mayor of ERC. “We Badalones never give up, however difficult the challenge may be, however dark the future may be. And next 28M we will celebrate the victory of the hard-working, feminist, green, inclusive Badalona, of the people who stand up to all crises and that says enough to the populist speeches of hate and fear”, warned Montornès. And it is that the candidate has considered that the future of the city does not go through returning to a mayor’s office in Albiol: “Those who offer magical solutions to problems that they themselves created, those who twitch and confront our neighborhoods cannot continue to lead the city , those who lied about accounts in Belize, those who decided to dismantle the city,” he suggested.
The most forceful against Albiol has been, however, Raul Romeva: “We have come to clean up fascism for a damn time, because it is enough to put up with certain demagogy, lies, deceit and policies. We have come to clean up and we will do it!” exclaimed the ex-minister, tuning Albiol’s controversial motto in the 2015 campaign, “Cleaning Badalona”, which was accused of being racist. While ERC wants to “defeat right-wing and exclusive fascist policies”, Romeva lamented that “there are people in Badalona who are not sure who to agree with, or they hide, or hide the acronyms, or say that they will agree with one because they do not want we continue making republican policies… and then they portray themselves, but in that way”, he has sentenced