Together, but not united. In this apparent paradox, the pro-independence actors celebrated the Diada which theoretically was that of the recovery of unity under a common objective, the amnesty, as a prior step to self-determinationbut which, once again, showed the poorly concealed misgivings between the two main protagonists: ERC and the ‘president’ Pere Aragoneson the one hand, and Junts and the ‘expresident’ Carles Puigdemont for another. Both under another paradox, and that is that they finally agree on the conditions to be established for the investiture of the socialist candidate, Pedro Sanchezbut both accuse each other of going into each other’s territory and with the ANC in the middle demanding “independence or elections”, encouraging cries calling for the resignation of the Government and certifying that they are preparing to participate in the Catalan elections, creating a fourth independence space.
The Diada was formal. The ANC demonstration was massive, but not overflowing (115,000 people according to the Urban Police, 800,000 according to the organizers), the least massive of those registered since 2012 if the reduced capacity due to the covid in 2020 is not taken into account. Aragonès received some whistles and the leader of the Assemblea – the one who maintains that the day after the amnesty must be proclaimed independence, “as is” – demanded that Only negotiate with the State if it recognizes 1-O.
Aragonès was timidly booed and, perhaps knowing what awaited him, he prepared the ground for his armored speech for this Diada. In the EL PERIÓDICO interview, he gave a first warning to Together. Yes, welcome to the investiture negotiation, he came to affirm, but the only one entitled to represent Catalonia in what affects its political status is the Government. Accompanied by everyone, but the Government. This Monday, at an event CKD, insisted that the amnesty is not the arrival point, but rather the beginning of this second negotiating phase. “The amnesty is not and will not be the end of anything. The amnesty is a necessary and essential step, the first step to open the way, because Catalonia has to decide and will freely decide its future in a referendum. We defend it in the streets, in the institutions and in negotiation,” he proclaimed.
The message from the Government and ERC in this Diada was clear: an appeal to the entire independence movement for “responsibility” to take advantage of the opportunity that the independence movement has arithmetically in the Congress of Deputies.
Duel between Turull and Aragonès
This vindication of the role of ERC in the last years of negotiation led to Aragonese to the ANC demonstration, which he avoided last year arguing that it was a rally against the Government and that it encouraged division. This year, the ‘president’ came accompanied by his Government but left the rally before reaching Plaza Espanya, something that “was already planned”, according to the Generalitat.
Meanwhile, Junts attended the demonstration and celebrated the Diada for the first time with the negotiating suit. There were no whistles at the Puigdemont delegationwhich through its general secretary, Jordi Turull, began the day with the offering to Rafael Casanova, also marking distances with ERC and also marking its own territory. First, to ensure that his party does not renounce the unilateral path. And second, picking up the gauntlet of Aragonès’ message in EL PERIÓDICO, stating that Aragonès’ invitation to an open dialogue table is well received, but remembering that Junts was vetoed from said table and that he considers it exhausted. “We have been told that the person negotiating was ERC and the people we wanted at the dialogue table have not been allowed to take part.“, he asserted. Turull was referring to “vetoes” in negotiations with the PSOE in Congress during the last legislature, and not only at the dialogue table.
“The objective is not the investiture”
Junts emerged unscathed from the negotiating strategy that it now champions because it put its particular accent. Puigdemont intervened from a distance to warn, in an event in a place of symbolic and historical weight, in the Fossar de les Moreres, that there will always be “the will of the contemporary Bourbon armies, today in the form of constitutionalist parties”, to prevent Barcelona is “led by those who, with all the nuances and discrepancies, would not have doubted which side of the walls they would have been on on September 11, 1714.”
But even beyond Puigdemont, at the independence demonstration, the president of Junts, Laura Borraswent so far as to affirm that citizens “they do not ask for investiture“, but “independence”, and warned that his party’s votes will serve “to resolve the conflict”, not to “prop up Spanish governments”.
At the same time, in a dialectical combat just a few hundred meters away, and at the same demonstration, the ERC spokesperson, Raquel Sansappealed to the independence “responsibility” to take advantage of the negotiating moment.
And in this fencing game, on behalf of the Consell de la República de Puigdemont, Lluís Llach He asked the Government not to forget the “confrontation.” “Only if you do so will we reciprocate,” he warned, adding against “partisan struggles to manage the regional crumbs“. He appealed, yes, to unity, the great macguffin of the recent independence movement.
1-O and the DUI
But the one who launched the depth charges against ERC was Dolors Feliu, the president of the ANC: “Independence or elections,” she cried. “If they don’t dare, if they don’t know how to do it, let them give way to other people.“, he concluded, in a speech in which he announced that the ANC would appear with the ‘civic list’ in the Catalan elections. He charged against “autonomism” and set a calendar based on demanding that the Government recognize 1-O for later. to proclaim independence in the Parliament. “A negotiation for the governability of the State, from a pro-independence position, is only acceptable if there is explicit recognition of the legitimacy of the referendum.” And that it recognizes everything that the Parliament decides, including the DUI, he added.
Prudence and discretion
Related news
On the other side of the negotiation, a lot of prudence and discretion. The president of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, wrote a tweet congratulating the Diada calling for a “new path” in Catalonia based on coexistence. Silence on the amnesty, which, as EL PERIÓDICO published, the PSOE does not see it viable to approve before the investiture.
The leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, also contained the message and limited itself to prescribing discretion and looking forward from a plural Catalonia. Not a word of amnesty, which is in the mouth of Sumar, who warns Junts: there is no time to approve the rule before the investiture. We will see.