Pere Aragonès, the ERC candidate for 12-M, insisted yesterday on the proposal he launched on Friday from RAC1 of a debate “wherever” between the three main candidates for the presidency of the Generalitat “to confront projects and ideas.” But given Salvador Illa’s refusal to hold debates outside Catalonia, the Republican offered to meet face to face with the leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, “in Elna, Perpignan or Belgium, wherever,” he repeated again, and do the same with the leader of the PSC here in Catalonia.
During an event held in Sitges, Aragonés reproached the Junts and PSC candidates for not wanting to talk about their proposals for Catalonia and defended the importance of holding two debates, two if necessary, so as not to end up running “a campaign in the “That the candidates will say things, but they will not talk about what affects the country.” “They are much more comfortable not talking about it or making it about themselves,” he criticized.
Following Aragonès’ proposal on Friday, the PSC released a statement making it clear that it will participate in a debate only when it is held in Catalonia, has “the majority of people on the list” and is broadcast through television, radio or digital media. Regarding this, the ERC candidate said that Illa is “more obsessed” with “not bothering Moncloa” than with responding “to the needs of the country.” And regarding the leader of Junts, he pointed out that, in his case, he is “more obsessed” with a “personal objective”, which may be “legitimate”, than with offering “concrete projects”.
The president stressed that he does have proposals for Catalonia and defended that he is supported by “having fulfilled three commitments that he set in his investiture speech”: recovering public services affected by covid, rebuilding the Catalan economy after the pandemic and working to “end with repression” and to “open a new stage,” according to him.
“We have freed the political prisoners,” he said, and affirmed that this did not happen “because of a change of opinion by Pedro Sánchez,” but because of “the perseverance of ERC.” He also attributed to the work of his party the suppression of the crime of sedition and the Amnesty law, which passed through Congress a few weeks ago and whose approval the PP is delaying in the Senate thanks to its absolute majority. “Now they say no to the referendum, but everything achieved has already been said no, and with our effort and time we will also achieve the referendum,” he concluded.
