The scenography of the event that starred Carles Puigdemont yesterday left no doubt. A giant blue canvas with the words “President Carles Puigdemont”, without a party logo, was the backdrop of the former president’s conference in Elna (France), in which he confirmed that he will be Junts’ candidate in the elections in the Parliament on May 12, and that he will put all the meat on the grill in this dispute: he renounces the European battle and promises to return if he has a majority to be invested, even if he does not have all the legal guarantees.
“If I am a candidate for the investiture, I will leave exile definitively to attend the plenary session in person”, pointed out the former president, who made it a condition to return that he has a sufficient majority to be invested.
So, the post-convergent leader will not be the candidate in the European elections on June 9, a move that shows faith and confidence that the final approval of the Amnesty law in a few weeks will be a turning point and change the ‘legal horizon of those charged with the process. “So that no one has any doubts and no one speculates, I have decided to resign from being part of the list for the elections to the European Parliament”, asserted Puigdemont just after announcing that he aspires to the presidency of the Generalitat. “Let it be clear that this [the 12-M elections] is my priority”, he pointed out. “I go to all of them”, he said at the end.
By not repeating as MEP, Puigdemont will lose prerogatives, such as legal immunity, which has allowed him to move around Europe these years, despite the arrest and extradition orders issued by the Supreme Court.
So, 30 kilometers from the border, in a total campaign atmosphere, with a staging that was taken care of to the millimeter and a thousand people – 1,400 according to the party – among which filled the event hall of the Consistory of Elna and those who concentrated in an annex outside, Puigdemont starred in the first major act of the post-convergents.
If there is one idea that he wanted to highlight and that will be developed in the coming days, it was that of asking for the “restitution” of the president who in October 2017, after the application of Article 155, went to Belgium He pointed out that the circle can now be closed and that “the opportunity opens up to make restitution possible”. “I propose my candidacy for the restitution of the presidency of the Generalitat”, he emphasized. “Good government and restitution at the service of the citizens”, he promised before putting on the table the possibility of a unitary list with the rest of the pro-independence formations, even if today this may be “cutting cold iron” and the other formations are already unchecked
“My candidacy will have to go beyond what my party is, it’s already somewhat the tradition of the house. We will incorporate profiles from other sectors”, he asserted. “The party is a tool, not an end”, he finished.
Likewise, he combined a pro-independence speech and the bet for a self-determination referendum with economic affairs – an aspect that will be central during the campaign with sovereignty claims – and issues relating to the management of self-government, for to which he asked for leadership. In this last section, after revealing the figures for the fiscal deficit and the low economic performance of the State in Catalonia, the leader, the sole protagonist of the meeting, referred to a “premeditated suffocation” and to the competition with Madrid for “dynamism economic”, a reference to Ramon Trias Fargas.
In his speech there were attacks on ERC for its management and the result of its negotiating strategy, while he claimed the agreement that Junts sealed with the PSOE in Brussels for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. In this sense, he detailed some milestones such as actions to make Catalan official in Europe. “We have dragged the State into the position we had always defended”, he said. Meanwhile, the president of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, for his part, downplayed Puigdemont’s candidacy. “It was already presented in 2017 and 2021”, he said.
