Junts per Catalunya will have the support of various minor political formations in the parliamentary elections on May 12, in which former president Carles Puigdemont is running as the leader of the cartel. This Tuesday, the party led by Jordi Turull has signed in Perpignan, in the south of France, an agreement with organizations such as Democrates de Catalunya – the sovereignist heirs of the Democratic Union of Catalonia –, Moviment d’Esquerres de Catalunya, Reagrupament, Estat Català – the party of ex-republican leader Josep Andreu, ex-mayor of Montblanc and friend of the ex-president–, Alternativa Verda, Action per la República – an organization that has a few cadres within JxCat– and Joventut Republicana de Lleida.
All of these parties will collaborate with JxCat in the 12-M candidacy and some of them already went hand in hand with the post-convergents in the elections of February 14, 2021 or in the municipal elections last year. This is, for example, the case of Demòcrates –with Antoni Castellà, former leader of Unió, and Assumpció Laïlla–, which had two deputies in the Catalan Chamber in the previous legislature, or of MESCat, which had one –Pere Albó–. Reagrupament also supported Junts three years ago.
With this pact, baptized as the Vernet agreement, JxCat prevents the dispersion of the sovereign vote and gives the candidacy a veneer of transversality that the former president has always tried to imbue into his political project. But apart from the leaders of these forces who will join the post-convergent lists, it is also expected that some independent profiles will be incorporated into starting positions, as Puigdemont hinted last Thursday at his conference in Elna.
Thus, the idea of ??Junts is to evoke the spirit with which the 2017 candidacy and the founding of JxCat as a party were woven, although this time the organic profiles of the political formation will not be relegated as happened six years ago to those of the PDECat. Puigdemont will be accompanied in a prominent place by leaders such as the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, the former councilor Josep Rull, now president of the national council of Junts, or the former councilor Lluís Puig. The names of other members of the leadership are also being considered, such as that of former councilor Jaume Giró, and several deputies from the last legislature are expected to repeat. In addition, the heads of the list from Girona, Lleida and Tarragona will be deputies from the last legislature: Salvador Vergés, Jeannine Abella and Mònica Sales.
Last Thursday, in Elna, the Junts logo was conspicuous by its absence and the turquoise green was replaced by a navy blue similar to the one it wore in the appearances of the Government of the Generalitat at the time when Convergència was in charge of the institution with Artur Mas and with Puigdemont himself. At today’s event in Perpignan, this circumstance was repeated, which is linked to what the former Catalan president expressed a few days ago: “I am clear that the candidacy that I will lead will have to go beyond my party, Junts per Catalunya, and will have to incorporate profiles and support from other sectors”. “The party is a tool, not a goal,” he added.
At this Tuesday’s event, the former president reiterated his “commitment to go beyond Junts” and to “build a project that governs and leads without leaving any folder aside, without leaving home resigned and that does not impose limits on itself.” to their aspirations”. In that sense, Puigdemont has promised an “ambitious and solvent government that speaks face to face with the central government.” “It is not just about offering a good government, there are those who are satisfied with that, but we have not come only to that,” stated the independence leader. “We want to regain self-esteem to finish the work we left half done and do it better, and do it without any type of complexes,” he added.
In his farewell as president of Junts, in June 2022, at the congress held in Argelers, the economy and the low execution of the State in Catalonia was already the protagonist of the former president’s speech. Last Thursday, that issue and the fiscal deficit was also central to his intervention and at the Perpignan event it was like that again and Puigdemont has even spoken of “economic repression.”
The former president has dedicated a good part of his speech to this issue and has asserted that “the costs of dependence on the Spanish State are very high and unsustainable.” After pointing out the parties of Salvador Illa (PSC) and Alejandro Fernández (PP) as responsible, Puigdemont regretted that “every year eight million people are left stranded and at the same time the economy of Madrid is overfed.” That, he said in reference to Illa, “can only be answered and fought from Catalonia with an attitude of firmness that someone whose hands are tied to the Spanish government cannot have.”
In this regard, he has emphasized that this situation occurs “for the scandalous benefit of the Community of Madrid” and has accused the central government of not offering any other proposal other than “resignation, conformity, and accepting the idea that “That situation is impossible to reverse.” “The only thing that can ensure our future is independence,” he concluded.
The solution, for the leader of JxCat, is for Catalonia to “have the skills, tools, and financial resources that its competitors and surrounding countries have.” Likewise, he has taken advantage of this issue to attack the Government of Pere Aragonès and has stated that on issues such as drought, immigration or the continuous disruption of Rodalies “there is no response from the Government perhaps due to incompetence.” “But even if they are competent, there is a lack of skills and resources,” he added.
