It is not easy to know when it is time to withdraw. Many great leaders have worn out their image by resisting in office longer than they should have. And others, with a disputed career, have improved their image by sensing what was the best time to do so. The results of this past Sunday’s elections have taken their toll on Esquerra Republicana and have opened the debate on the continuity of their leadership. Pere Aragonès has closed his time at the head of the Generalitat with a resignation that honors him; Marta Rovira has chosen to remain in her position, but only to organize the party until an extraordinary congress in November, and, finally, Oriol Junqueras has chosen to resign now and appear again at the aforementioned conclave. They are three very different ways to say goodbye. Rovira is leaving, but she is going to be a fundamental piece in these coming months because she will be the coordinator who will negotiate the investiture with the rest of the Catalan parties.
Carles Puigdemont has improved Junts’ results, but he has lost again in his third election as head of the list. Nobody has asked him to resign, and it was he himself who opened the door to leaving the Parliament if he was not sworn in as president, in an interview with Jordi Basté on RAC1.
Puigdemont and Junqueras have been the main protagonists of the process, and many citizens of Catalonia have expressed solidarity with them for the legal situation they have experienced and have not yet overcome. With the results in hand, in which for the first time Catalan nationalism has not obtained a majority since 1984, it would not be unreasonable to invite them to reflect on whether it is worth continuing on the front line of politics, after these results, but above all because of the consequences for Catalonia of the policies they implemented. The person signing this has criticized the actions of the PP government during the process, and has defended the step forward with pardons and also the amnesty. Now, in the current context, it is legitimate to ask whether it makes sense for the two to continue leading their respective parties.
