The management of Junts per Catalunya agreed this Monday on the expulsion of the Parliament member Cristina Casol from the post-convergent group. The decision was made in a tense executive meeting in which the party president, Laura Borràs, as well as several members chosen by her for that body, defended the continuity of Casol. On the other side of the scale, members such as David Saldoni, deputy to the general secretary Jordi Turull, and Glòria Freixa, both deputies, have spoken.
Borràs’ intervention, according to the sources consulted, has been “harsh” and he has issued a warning by ensuring that if the expulsion is carried out there will be consequences. The leader has been supported by deputies Jaume Alonso Cuevillas and Esther Vallès and the councilor of Terrassa Montserrat Caupena, all of them people she trusts. Aurora Madaula has also done so, who has connected electronically and has criticized the decision by calling the meeting “inquisitorial” and a “witch hunt”, according to some of those present. Casol, in turn, has reiterated to those present that he has suffered harassment and has assured that he has put the case in the hands of his lawyers.
This expulsion comes after Casol denounced the Junts group in the Parliament of Catalonia in November of “gender-based harassment” and discrimination. He did so through the internal channels of the Chamber, but the independent investigation, delegated to an external company, launched by the institution’s equality office concluded that the reported facts cannot be proven, although it did make some mention of the internal climate. within the formation, where two different and in some cases opposing visions of politics coexist. When the complaint remained a dead letter, the permanent management of Junts demanded that Casol hand over her deputy record or that she be expelled from the group, as was done today. The deputy herself made it clear from the first day that she would not resign and that if necessary she would continue until the end of the legislature as a non-attached deputy. Of the 32 members of the parliamentary group, there were 26 who asked for her expulsion through different channels last week, more than 20 through a letter they sent to the secretary general.
The deputy and second secretary of the Parliament Board, Aurora Madaula, who is also vice president of the party, also activated this protocol a few weeks ago and filed a complaint in terms similar to those of Casol, the outcome of which is not yet known. In any case, in her case there was first a public complaint from the lectern of the chamber during the El Parlament de les Dones event, on November 24, of “silent violence” by the party’s “comrades.”
It so happens that both Madaula and Casol are leaders very close to Borràs and both in the leadership and in the parliamentary group, various voices assure that in no case is there discrimination based on gender and, on the other hand, there is disagreement and political debate. In fact, both Turull and the party’s vice president and spokesperson, Josep Rius, have publicly denied that there is discrimination. There are those who see in both complaints an intention to wear down Turull and the leadership of the Parliament group, which has two leaders he trusts, Albert Batet and Mònica Sales.
The complaint from Madaula, who has been on leave since before Christmas, has not followed the same path as that of Casol. After his explanation in public, he decided to take his case to the JxCat guarantee commission, which gave him ten days to present a document with his reasons. Being on leave, the deputy asked for more time and was granted another seven days, but in the end she declined to present a document due to her lack of confidence in that body, as she alleged, and noted that she would go to other instances, as in this case. the Parliament. That commission, of which three of the six members that make up it were removed from the case to avoid problems or conflicts of interest, had two other documents on the table that denied their complaint, one from the parliamentary group that was signed by 22 deputies and another from the feminist sector of the party, which considered that political use of feminism had been made to wear down the leadership. So, depending on how things go, Madaula could follow the same path as Casol.
The clash that was evident this Monday at the meeting is nothing more than the latent pulse that has been in the party since the last congress, when Turull and Borràs, instead of confronting their projects, reached an agreement to share power over the horn. Since then, the specter of a split or an extraordinary congress has always been in the background, since the pragmatic wing of the party considers that they could have won that fight.
The possibility of collecting signatures for an extraordinary conclave to renew the leadership is not the first time it has been put on the table. 10% of militancy is needed. It would be a matter of obtaining about 500 or 600 signatures, according to the estimates of some of those who at one time or another have considered this possibility. But Turull has always chosen to preserve the unity of the party and deactivate those movements. After the Madaula controversy, without knowing that Casol had also denounced the party, that possibility was already handled, just before Christmas. In the Parliament and among the intermediate cadres there was a spirit of congress and facing the next electoral cycle with the JxCat turn of recent months consolidated and without dissonant leaders in the direction, but in the end, in the national council that was held on December 13 January in El Morell (Tarragonès), there was only support for the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, and the leadership of the parliamentary group. There was also criticism of Madaula from some local leaders, but the issue did not go beyond that.
