Without cracks or fissures, independence yesterday sided with former president Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí. Representatives of all the political formations and entities of this political spectrum, as well as the Government of the Generalitat, traveled to Brussels to accompany the leader of Junts and the former councilors before the verdict of the General Court of the European Union ( TGUE ).
The post-convergents’ major plan was the one with the most representatives and the party, shortly after learning of the sentence, took advantage of the circumstance to make a “massive” appeal to its electorate to mobilize on July 23 at urns Especially in the face of the abstentionism promoted by certain sectors of independence. The slogan of the formation was a blow of the bugle to “demonstrate” at the polls “the support of independence in exile”.
Laura Borràs, president of JxCat, stressed that the sentence only makes independence “more determined than ever”. “Now and always with you, President Puigdemont”, expressed Jordi Turull, secretary general of the post-convergents.
Pere Aragonès delegated the representation of the Government in Brussels to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meritxell Serret, who was with Puigdemont in Belgium until March 2021. His last hope, like that of those affected by the sentence, now falls to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Serret explained the support of the Catalan Executive and how Junts took the opportunity to appeal to the pro-independence electorate and “reinforce the democratic front to face the threat coming from the right”.
The president of the Generalitat did not want to give up the game either. “There is still a way to Europe”, he reacted from Twitter. “In the face of repression, we continue to defend that organizing a referendum is not a crime, but a democratic right for all peoples”, he added.
Oriol Junqueras, president of ERC, went further and assured that the TGUE does not defend “the MEPs in exile against a political decision to pursue independence”, because, as he said, it is based on a plea that “no longer makes sense” to the extent that the crime of sedition has been removed from the Penal Code.
The CUP also accompanied Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí to Brussels. “Once again it is shown that dejudicialization is not possible”, said the anti-capitalist Albert Botran. Xavier Antich, president of Omnium Cultural, spoke directly about “persecution and obsession against exiles”.
The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) was also present. He expressed his concern at the TGUE’s decision to “ignore all the irregularities” in the plea request. The president of the association, Dolors Feliu, warned the European Union that “if it wants to lead democracy, it must protect the fundamental rights of the representatives of the citizens of Europe themselves”, with reference to the MEP status of the three affected.
