ERC rejects an advance election

Five years after the leap into the void made by the Catalan institutions, when the Parliament approved a unilateral declaration of independence, which no country in the world recognized, the crisis between the pro-independence parties is at an all-time high. The Junts leadership, meeting since 10:45 a.m. this Thursday and which has still ended, weighs going to the opposition and ERC that, whatever happens, there will be no early elections.

Among the Junts management, there is no unanimity. There are leaders who refuse to leave the Government and others, led by its president, Laura Borràs, want the break to be now. In this context, a 'third way' emerges, which advocates continuing until the end of the year. "In this way, the 180 senior officials and the ministers could collect the payroll for October, November, December and twice as much for Christmas," sources from the cabinet of one of the ministries that controls the post-convergence formation told EXPANSIÓN.

The war between ERC and Junts is total, and the general secretary of the neoconvergents, Jordi Turull, has stated this clearly, who admitted this Thursday that they feel "quite expelled" from the Government. This was stated in statements to the Rac1 radio station the day after the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, dismissed the hitherto number two of the regional Executive, Jordi Puigneró.

The struggle between the still partners is so strong that the versions that one and the other give about the facts is absolutely different. According to ERC, in Junts, several ministers have opposed leaving the Government. On the contrary, the neo-convergents assure that the entire party "closes ranks" with the leadership and that they question the removal of Puigneró.

ERC is aware that between ministers, general directors and senior officials, the departure of Junts would mean that around 200 people would no longer receive a very well-paid public salary. At the same time, he knows that the party is extremely divided on what strategy it should follow in the short and medium term, since it falsely closed its congress last June.

It was then that the former president fled to Belgium and MEP Carles Puigdemont stopped presiding Junts and his position was taken by Laura Borràs, who was suspended as president of the Parliament last July, after being accused of dividing a public contract to award it to a friend in her stage as a high position in the Government. ERC joined its votes with those of various opposition parties to force the replacement of Borràs at the table of the chamber, who since then has required Junts to break with the Republicans.

The Junts sector headed by Borràs believes that the party needs to rearm itself and insist on maximalism in order to achieve a good result in the municipal elections. However, other leaders who come from the extinct CiU see it necessary to continue in the Government and to be linked to stability, at a very difficult time economically, in the face of inflation, the food crisis and the rise in energy prices that has provoked the Russian aggression on Ukraine.

Last Tuesday, in Parliament, the General Policy Debate began, and if ERC and Junts agree on something, it is that the intervention of their partners was the straw that broke the camel's back. According to the neoconvergents, Aragonès is wrong with the agreed referendum inspired by the clarity law of Canada that he proposes. His goal is for the Cortes to approve a norm that defines the conditions that would make the call for a self-determination referendum possible.

ERC did not hesitate to accuse its partners of being "populists" after the president of the Junts parliamentary group, Albert Batet, admitted his lack of "trust" with the Republicans and that they are not fulfilling the pact for the legislature that they reached in May of 2021. If there are no changes, Batet announced that Junts would present a matter of confidence to the president.

Turull has assured this Thursday that, whatever the decision adopted by the Junts executive, it must be "endorsed" by the militancy. For her part, the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà (ERC), assured that there will be no early elections.

"The Government will continue, the Government is in force. It just started a year and a half ago. We have a Government program that we are executing," Vilagrà told Catalunya Ràdio.