ERC arrives at the European election campaign in the worst of scenarios: close to a debacle of results in the Catalan elections and with the wound of an internal crisis that will fester at least until November 30, when it holds its national congress to renew A most inopportune campaign if you also take into account that all eyes are on the Republicans, because today they are decisive for the investiture. And the last thing they need now is to be the focus of attention.
Diana Riba, ERC’s number one for Europe in the June 9 elections, has the complicated task of ensuring that all these factors do not put her proposals on the back burner during the electoral race. At the moment it doesn’t help that the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, intervened at the campaign kick-off event this Thursday in Badalona. But his participation is unavoidable as well as a value for Republicans.
“The moment is not easy for ERC,” Riba admitted. “But not for the independence movement either, because we are facing this reactionary international that is preparing to assault power in Europe,” he added.
And the candidate has summarized the leitmotifs of her campaign. First, we must combat a discourse and a framework of the extreme right that is permeating, sometimes unconsciously, in other right-wing parties. And second, that “sociovergence” is even more pronounced in the European Parliament, that the PSOE and Junts, and even the PP, “seem very different when they talk about Catalonia, but they quickly come to an agreement in Europe,” says the republican. This is proven, in his opinion, by the fact that they agreed on austerity policies, immigration policies and free trade agreements without mirror clauses – those that require the same production conditions that apply to countries that export to Europe to be applied to countries. EU farmers –.
Riba is the head of the list of a coalition, Ahora Repúblicas, that ERC has formed with EH Bildu and the BNG, as in 2019, with the only novelty of the alliance of Balearic forces Ara Més, in a more than secondary role. Basques and Galicians are on the rise, as they demonstrated in their respective regional elections this year. Republicans, on the other hand, are in decline. The one for the other allows Esquerra to think that they can maintain the three deputies obtained five years ago. “There are surveys that give us four seats,” Riba recalled.
The coalition is repeated and the distribution of positions on the list is repeated. Pernando Barrena (Bildu) and Ana Miranda (BNG) are once again numbers two and three on the list. ERC added TV3 meteorologist Tomàs Molina in number four. A media signing that even shares an electoral poster with Riba under the slogan “Republican Europe”.