The division between ERC and Junts per Catalunya has been noted today in the acts of commemoration of 82nd anniversary of the execution of Lluís Companys, president of the Generalitat repubicla, in the castle of Montjuïc. Both the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and leaders of various Catalan political forces have participated in the floral offering to Companys on Montjuïc, both in the Fossar de Santa Eulàlia, where a monolith commemorates the place where he was shot, and in the Fossar de la Pedrera, where he is buried.
The general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, has denounced that the mentality of Spain to “crush” the institutions of Catalonia “is still alive in many sectors of the State”, but “Now they don’t do it with firing squads, but with squads dressed in toga.” Aragonès has opted for another tone. In front of Companys’ tomb, the president highlighted the importance of his defense of social justice and freedom. Companys represents the institutions “that never give up”, he has pointed out, and has remembered the former presidents of the Generalitat Josep Irla and Josep Tarradellas. “Today we must claim it more than ever, we must remember more than ever that if we forget that fascism exists, fascism returns”, Aragonès pointed out. “You have to stand up to him.” Both in the offering of the Government and that of his party, ERC, along with Aragonès were, among others, Oriol Junqueras, president of ERC and the vice president of the Parliament acting as president, Alba Vergés. “Today ERC is again and wants to be the common home of all those who love Catalonia, love the republic and love independence and justice”, Junqueras highlighted.
JxCat, who broke with ERC and left the Government a week ago, has made this offering with various leaders and the president of the formation, Laura Borràs, at the helm. “We have come to pay tribute to Companys, who was assassinated by the State for the simple fact of being president of Catalonia, an unprecedented event in democratic Europe, nor that there has been no reparation and annulment of the trial”, he said. Turull. He considers that his death “has not been in vain”. And he added: “There is a convinced, raised people who want to achieve those values that Companys claimed, a free country, full of equality, justice and progress”.
Precisely the ERC group has presented an initiative in Congress with which it intends to get the Government to pay tribute to the former Catalan president Lluís Companys, shot in 1940, through a “solemn” act of atonement that should be held “in the shortest possible time of time possible”.
carnations and torches
Hours earlier, the JxCat delegation also carried out the traditional torchlight march to the place where Companys was shot at Montjuïc castle. ERC has done it this year with white carnations. The Consell de la República, a para-institutional entity chaired by the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont from Brussels, has been represented by some of the members of its leadership, including Antoni Castellà, who has harshly charged against ERC and has urged him to rebuild the independence unit .
The mayor Ada Colau, at the head of the floral offering of the City Council, has lamented the lack of strong institutions in Catalonia for a long time. “It is important to remember the memory and tribute to Lluís Companys and the thousands of women and men who gave their lives so that today we can have democracy”, she stressed. And she has celebrated the approval of the Democratic Memory Law that comes into force next week. “Democratic, human rights and republican values must be strong and entrenched to prevent the growth of the extreme right,” she declared.
Historical memory
Related news
The non-law proposal registered in Congress by ERC also urges the Government to publish the names of all the victims of the Dictatorship. They emphasize the annulment of the rulings of Franco’s repressive courts, including that of Lluís Companys, whose figure they reiterate must be subject to reparation and public recognition by the Government and also “extensive towards the people of Catalonia”.
The proposal signed by ERC for its debate in the plenary session recalls that the new Memory Law has ended up recognizing the “illegality” of the Franco regime, the nullity of the sentences of its political courts and the right to a personal declaration of recognition and reparation of the victims. “It is essential to urgently carry out the reparation of victims established by law,” stresses ERC, in whose text it recalls that time makes direct relatives disappear.