With the counter for Pedro Sánchez’s investiture already underway, the ‘former president’ Carles Puigdemont has taken advantage of the sixth anniversary of 1-O to claim the seven Junts votes, essential for there to be a Government, and also to distance themselves from ERC. He wanted to make this clear in the event organized by the Consell de la República and the sovereigntist entities in the Plaza de Catalunya, where he claimed Junts as those who “never wanted to let it be” and demanded not to “undersell” the 1 -EITHER “looking for personal outlets.”
While waiting for the King to officially designate Pedro Sánchez as a candidate for the investiture this week, a fact that will allow the PSOE to step on the accelerator of the negotiations with ERC and Junts, Puigdemont has avoided speaking directly about his conditions, but he did want to launch two notices. The first to the Republicans, to whom he wanted to make it clear that they would not let anyone “turn the page” in his name. And the second to the PSOE, making it clear that they will not resign themselves with a “autonomous pax”.
In this sense, Puigdemont has claimed October 1 as the “formula” to achieve independence. “The formula exists, we just have to decide to apply it,” he assured in this sense. “All attempts to downplay the significance of 1-O from the opposing camp and from one’s own have failed and will fail,” he added.
If the fifth anniversary of 1-O came in the midst of the breakup of the ERC and Junts Government, with significant criticism and boos against the Republicans for their negotiation strategy with the PSOE, in the sixth commemoration the prism has been totally different. Republicans have been walking the path of negotiation with the socialists, but now parliamentary arithmetic has led Carles Puigdemont’s party to explore the same path. However, Puigdemont wanted to distance himself and make it clear that his bet is not the same as the one that ERC has used for the last six years.
A new referendum
ERC has sent a discreet representation to the demonstration, led by the representative in Congress, Pilar Vallugera, who before starting the event wanted to vindicate the role of the Republicans in 1-O and defended that only an agreed referendum can “replace” it. “It has become clear that ERC is for independence and that we have always been,” Vallugera stated vehemently. The Republicans still have very vivid memories of last year’s mobilization, when the former president of the Parliament Carme Forcadell was harshly booed.
Precisely, the ‘president’ of the Generalitat has already referred to the independence disunity this morning, Pere Aragones, which has taken advantage of the sixth anniversary of 1-O to ask Junts to go as one in the negotiations with the socialists. In an institutional statement on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of 1-O from Fonollosa (Bages), one of the municipalities where the Civil Guard acted to prevent the vote, Aragonès has once again pointed out that the amnesty is necessary to “complete the end of repression, but he has assured that, By itself, it does not resolve the political conflict. In this sense, he has once again called for a new referendum whose result is “respected and implemented.”
This week, ERC and Junts joined forces in the Parliament to condition the investiture of Pedro Sanchez that the Government “commits to working to make effective the conditions for the celebration of a referendum“.