Iván Vila
Esquerra pays homage to its leader with a massive act in which Junqueras
calls to take advantage of the cause to discredit Spain in front of Europe
Oriol Junqueras on Tuesday
gave the kick-off to the campaign of discredit against Spanish institutions in
which ERC wants to convert the trial of 1-O with a profuse conference that
served as a step to Esquerra to take a bath of self-esteem and to claim the
prominence of its leader, who is the defendant who faces more serious penalties
in the cause, as compared with the omnipresence in the media of the leader of
Junts per Catalunya (JpC), Carles
Puigdemont.
Junqueras, for sure, spoke through interposed
person. Or rather through several persons. But only after a video introduction
of the general secretary of Esquerra, Marta
Rovira and a live presentation of the president of the Parliament, Roger Torrent, and the vice president
of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès.
"Today I speak to you from a cell in the
prison of Lledoners, through a plurality of dear voices", it was heard,
while a holographic projection of the imprisoned leader provoked the delirium
of the audience. The voice, the first one, was that of Roger Junqueras, brother of the president of Esquerra, who was the
one who began reading the text.
After him, the journalist Empar Moliner would continue reading; the member of Parliament Najat
Driouech; the former member of Parliament of the PSC Joan Ignasi Elena, now recycled as Esquerra's legal spokesman during
the trial; the candidate of ERC to the mayoralty of Barcelona, Ernest Maragall, or Diana Riba, candidate to the next
European Parliament and Raül Romeva's partner.
What it was about was just dedicating a tribute of
ERC to its leader, who has been 463 days in preventive prison, and to blow a
bombshell at the gates of the trial, which will start next week. And it was
given indeed, in front of more than 2,000 people gathered in the Sant Jordi
Club of Barcelona.
A mirror to discredit the State
"We do not face a simple judicial court",
Junqueras considers, but "the regime of 78", and, he argues, we must
take advantage of it. Not in vain, the former Catalan vice-president, in a
sacrificial way, assumes the prison "as one more step to achieve
freedom". Junqueras says he does not regret anything that has led him to
face accusations for which he is being asked for 25 years in prison.
"We want to put a mirror in front of the State
and that Europe realizes what Spain is really like, because by doing so we can
put ourselves on the side of the European democrats."
In the end, Junqueras claimed for Catalonia
"the role of first trench" against the advance of populism and the
extreme right, for which, according to his approach, it is the Spanish
government the one making things easy.
Proud of the referendum, no mention of the 27-O
"I have not done anything that I have to
regret, but I am very proud, I would do it again," says Junqueras,
vindicating October 1 as the moment that marks "a before and an after"
in the contemporary history of Catalonia.
On the other hand, about the 27-O, the day of the
unilateral declaration of independence by the Parliament, there is no sign in
the conference. Nor any appeal to unilateralism; but, in the same line that
Esquerra defends since many months ago, there is an appeal to broaden their
base.
Thus, Junqueras insists on defending that, beyond
the battle for independence, it is necessary to have an impact on social
policies, because, in order to build "a feasible path towards
freedom", it is not possible to "ignore global challenges", so
"the main decisions have to go in the line of combating growing
inequalities, defending diversity and protecting the environment."
From that nod to realism could be inferred a
reproach to his partners in government of JpC, so installed in the republican
rhetoric and gesticulation; but the truth is that the conference of Junqueras
is very considered, just to avoid stepping on any puddle. In fact, there was no
more reference to Puigdemont than some initial words "to embrace the
companions of exile" to whom he only mentioned by their first names.
The jibes to the former president are left by
Junqueras for the interviews, like that of this Monday in Le Figaro in which he
said that he chose to stay in Catalonia and not flee to avoid the action of
justice, as Puigdemont did, "in the sense of responsibility" towards
Catalan citizenship, as Socrates, Seneca and Cicero also did in their day.
Against the pressing of JpC in Barcelona
Neither Junqueras got caught up in the issue of the
municipal elections in May 26, those elections for which JpC has reactivated its
pressing on ERC to drag it to a unitary list in Barcelona; but it made quite clear
that Esquerra still does not want to know anything about it.
For Junqueras, the municipal elections "have
to be useful in the setting up of Republican majorities, Republican town
councils", says Junqueras. "They are a test of fire throughout
Catalonia, and especially in Barcelona," which "has to return to be a
world reference in the struggle for freedom" and "spearhead of the anti-fascist
struggle in Europe", something that can only be "if it is the capital
of republican Catalonia".
But all that does not mean in any way that the ERC
leader is about the task of exploring any pro-independence pre-election
confluence. For Junqueras, "only a central force, progressive, that
unequivocally represents the republican movement and the defense of the rights
and liberties of citizenship" can turn Barcelona into "engine of the
struggle for the Catalan republic". And that, he concludes, "is what
the candidacy led by Ernest Maragall also represents today".
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