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 Junts’ seven votes in Congress, but also to distance itself 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” it. cardinal points” of 1-O “looking for personal solutions”.
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, warning that they will not resign themselves to a “pax autonomica.”
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. The Republicans have been on the path of negotiation with the socialists for years, but now parliamentary arithmetic has led Carles Puigdemont’s party to explore the same path. However, the ‘former president’ wanted to mark distances with ERC’s negotiating strategy.
In this sense, after the Republicans have been pointing out this change in Junts’ strategy for days, Puigdemont has tried to turn the story around and has pointed out that it is ERC that has started a strategy of “return to 1-O.” “I want to greet you, with hope,” he stated, after accusing them of having belittled him in recent years and of having wanted to “corner” the Consell per la República.
Thus, in a videoconference from Waterloo, the ‘former president’ has once again claimed 1-O as a “formula” to achieve independence, despite not specifying very well what this strategy would consist of. “The formula exists, we just have to decide to apply it,” he assured, calling for a “confluence of wills” so that 1-O is “more than a date to commemorate.”
Boos to Òmnium for the amnesty
But the disunity of the movement has not only been seen with the harshness of Puigdemont’s speech against his former partners in the Government. The pro-independence entities have also suffered from this same medicine, especially when they have talked about amnesty. While the president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, has assured that the amnesty is a “trap to whitewash the Spanish State” and has urged the independence movement to declare independence from the Parliament on the same day that the Cortes approve the amnesty; the president of Òmnium, Xavier Antichhas defended its approval to “force the state” to recognize that 1-O was not “a crime”, understanding it as an “amendment.”
Some words that have provoked some cries of “no amnesty” and boos against Antich, from some of those attending the demonstration. At the celebration of the fifth anniversary, the person who received hostility from the protesters was the former president of the Parliament Carme Forcadellwho was criticized for his party’s negotiating strategy in the Congress of Deputies.
Discreet ERC assistance
Forcadell has not attended the demonstration this year, to which ERC has sent a discreet representation, led by the deputy in Congress, Pilar Vallugera. Before starting the event, the parliamentarian 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, surely already anticipating the criticism they would receive once the event began.
Related news
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“.