The possibility of re-editing a pro-independence government is one of the scenarios that can be seen after the Catalan elections of May 12, but in view of the precedents and the open disputes between the two main formations in this space, Junts and ERC, the new alliance would be born under obvious signs of mistrust. The candidates of the two parties, Carles Puigdemont and Pere Aragonès, yesterday again showed signs of a latent suspicion with mutual reproaches for the lack of unity of independence in Catalonia.
Puigdemont is clear that his chances of being invested and returning to govern the Generalitat require obtaining the support of a diminished ERC at the polls. It would start from a victorious position on 12-M, although not necessarily above the PSC, so that the seats it obtains added to those of ERC – and perhaps of the other pro-independence parties – add up to a majority against the constitutionalist bloc . His plan is, therefore, to revive the process to “give continuity to that legal declaration of Parliament”, that is to say the unilateral declaration of independence of October 27, 2017. For this, it would be necessary to recover “unity”, a will that he already indicated at the Elna conference, in which he announced his candidacy.
The post-convergent sees it likely that in 12-M he will surpass ERC and undo the “technical tie that exists in the pro-independence world, which has paralyzed us”. That’s why he says that with Oriol Junqueras’ party “we don’t have to go head-to-head, but work side by side”, with reference to the debate that the republicans are raising with the former president, and he even assures that if ERC were to remain about and the sovereignist majority remained, Junts would once again try to “be part of an independentist government”.
But at the same time, Puigdemont questions the orthodoxy of his rival, urging him to clarify whether they share the same goal as in the past, independence, or on the contrary they would opt for an autonomist tripartite with socialists and communes. “I have not yet heard any resounding position from ERC that they will not negotiate with the PSC”, he said in an interview in the Ara newspaper in which he reproached the republicans for believing “much more in the disunity” between pro-independence forces.
Aragonés replied to his rival yesterday. “Unity is not preached, but practiced”, he admonished him, and regretted the attitude of Junts in a legislature in which he ended up leaving the Catalan Executive due to irreconcilable disagreements with the ERC Cabinet. “What we have seen in the last three years on the part of Junts, unfortunately, has been very far from this”, he criticized.
Aragonès avoided “speculating” about post-electoral scenarios. He stressed that his policy of pacts after the elections of 12-M will be “conditioned” by the proposals that can be deployed for the next four years and that “the PSC is very far” from the postulates that ERC puts forward.
For the socialists who aspire to govern alone, a new government pact of Junts and ERC would be the “failure of politics” and “return to the past”, according to number two on the lists, Alicia Romero.
