The president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, has given the example of the conflict in Northern Ireland to affirm this Thursday that the “Spanish State must understand” that the future of Catalonia “must be decided by Catalan society by voting.”
The independence leader made these statements in Belfast, after meeting in the capital of Ulster with the former president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, with whom he spoke on the last day of this trip about the process of negotiating the conflict in this Irish province. , comprising three counties, which gave rise to the Good Friday Agreement (1998).
That pact, which put an end to almost 30 years of violence, provides for the holding of a referendum on the reunification of the island to integrate the Republic of Ireland and this current British province, a consultation that, according to Sinn Féin, the former political arm of the already inactive IRA, could be convened in 5 or 10 years.
In this regard, Junqueras did not want to comment today on a calendar for the independence aspirations of ERC, now immersed in a negotiation process with the PSOE for the investiture of the acting president, Pedro Sánchez. Although he has pointed out in this sense that “it is impossible for there to be an agreement if the Spanish government does nothing to reach it.”
For Junqueras, the acting Executive must “make an effort” if he wants to close an understanding that allows the investiture of his candidate. And he added that the “main obstacle” is that Moncloa still must “understand” that it is necessary to work for a “better democracy” and a “freer and fairer” future. In his opinion, the Spanish government must assume that what is “good” in terms of freedom and justice for Catalan society is also good for Spanish society.
“It is never a question of time, it is a question of democratic strength, it is always a question of democratic majorities, of respect for the democratic will,” Junqueras said at the end of the meeting with Adams, in which Republican MEP Jordi also participated. Solé and the general spokesman of Sinn Féin, Declan Kearney.
Therefore, he added, ERC does not consider this issue “in temporal terms”, but rather as the need for “the Spanish State to understand that it must respect that the future of Catalonia must be decided by Catalan society by voting.”
“We are democrats and therefore we want to resolve all political conflicts democratically and we are convinced that in order to resolve a conflict in democratic terms we must listen to citizens, we must listen to society and we must listen to it when it votes,” Junqueras stressed.
Regarding Sinn Féin’s experience in conflict resolution, Kearney has indicated that the “lesson in the case of Catalonia” is to highlight the “importance of inclusive dialogue” and recognize that “change is on the horizon.”
“All parties must sit at the table and seek a political consensus on the way forward,” said Kearney, who has also drawn parallels between Catalonia and Ireland regarding the “momentum” that “the right to self-determination” has gained.
“We fervently hope that the people of Catalonia can look to the future and that in the coming period they can also forge a new constitutional future based on self-determination and independence,” declared the spokesperson for Sinn Féin, the first party in Northern Ireland and the main of the opposition in the Republic of Ireland.
Junqueras began a four-day visit to the island of Ireland last Monday, where he also met in Dublin with the president of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald.
The Catalan independence leader will close his round of contacts by meeting today, Thursday, with the president of the Northern Ireland Assembly, also a Republican, Alex Maskey, before returning to Barcelona on Friday.
