Aurora Madaula will continue for now as second secretary of the Parliament’s Board, despite the mistrust that prevails between her and the leadership of her party and with the president of the Catalan Chamber, Anna Erra. This Thursday the two leaders sat down to analyze the situation and the latest episodes, which have unleashed a climate of tension between the two souls that coexist in Junts per Catalunya. Erra, according to consulted sources, today asked Madaula “to reflect” on her role in the Board in light of the latest events.
Thus, after the meeting, the distrust of the pragmatic wing of the party, the majority of her parliamentary group colleagues and a large part of the leadership towards the second secretary of the Chamber is evident, but no decision has been made. In fact, the distrust is reciprocal, but if the leader does not resign voluntarily there is no mechanism for her to leave the governing body of the Chamber.
“The matter will be left to rot and lose relevance, as has been done in similar cases,” predicted a source consulted on Friday of last week, the same day the controversy arose. From the first moment in the pragmatic sector of the post-convergent formation there were those who asked that Madaula abandon all responsibility, both in the party and in the Parliament, considering his attitude “intolerable”, for talking about violence after a case of “political disagreements” .
In the leadership of JxCat and in the post-convergent group there is a lot of discomfort with Madaula due to the accusations he made on Friday from the lectern of the chamber during the celebration of the Parlament de les Dones. Specifically, the sovereigntist leader accused her “comrades” in the party of “silent violence.”
“Sexist violence is wearing the lilac ribbon, demonstrating, while at the same moment you impose machismo in your organizations, institutions, work or family environments,” said the JxCat deputy from the lectern. “Sexist violence is that they belittle your work, that they don’t listen to you or that they modify your proposal without your opinion,” she noted at another later moment, visibly excited. She also made reference to “parliamentary and media harassment”, but in no case did she put names on the table. The fact that she made those accusations without evidence and without concreteness irritated her colleagues. Borràs shared part of Madaula’s speech, which is part of his closest group. In fact, the latter came to the Parliament Table and to the vice presidency of Junts at the hands of the president of the party.
There are leaders who reproach Madaula for using feminism in criticisms that, in their opinion, have to do with “political disagreements.” Sources consulted also remember that the leader now questioned remained silent a year ago when she was in the eye of Hurricane Francesc de Dalmases after a fight with a TV3 journalist. Both are part of the nucleus closest to Borràs.
The guarantees commission now has several writings on the table on this matter, one from Madaula herself, as published by Vilaweb, as well as the one signed by more than twenty deputies of the Parliament and another from the feminist sector of the party, which denounces the use spurious feminism on the part of the leader. On Sunday of last week there was an extraordinary meeting of the permanent management and it was already decided to direct the issue to that formation body.
According to consulted sources, Madaula exploded on Friday after being disavowed by management that same week. These sources point out that the party negotiated a text on the right to abortion in Andorra with Esquerra Republicana and the Commons that was later rejected by the post-convergent group so as not to open a crisis with the principality.
In any case, it is not the first time that a similar episode has happened and there have been other disagreements between the deputy and the pragmatists of the party. All this comes from afar. The tension has always been present between a leader who agrees with the left in many aspects and a formation that brings together the majority of cadres who come from Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya and the PDECat, two formations that have already lowered the blinds.
In fact, at the Argelers congress, in June 2022, the current vice president of Junts was close to not obtaining the minimum necessary support from the militants and then denounced a voting slogan against her within the pragmatic wing while at the same time shared criticism that referred to JxCat as a “burrow of convergent autonomists who adapt to continue living off the trough.” After that, in the second phase of the congress, which took place in July 2022 in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, there were amendments from local groups that proposed laminating all of its powers and leaving it outside the leadership, just as happened with other leaders related to Borràs, although those that affected Madaula were finally rejected.
This Tuesday, in the Catalan Chamber, there was a meeting of the Junts group with the leadership and in recent days more than twenty deputies have signed a letter protesting the words of Madaula, who did not appear in Parliament yesterday although He did participate in a debate in the afternoon with members of other parties and sovereigntist entities. The party’s general secretary, Jordi Turull and Borràs attended the meeting, which took place in the offices of JxCat. The leaders close to the secretary general demand responsibilities, but the management’s intention until now has been to let time pass and to ensure that the discomfort and internal noise do not get worse, as has already been done on other occasions, and to avoid taking decisions. hot decisions.
Be that as it may, this episode has reopened the thunder box between the two souls of the formation, who in recent months had put aside their differences during the negotiation with the PSOE, at least in public, at a time when Carles Puigdemont had monopolized all the focus.
