The Catalan independence movement tests its pactist turn in the streets

The Catalan National Day has an eye on Madrid this year. The uninhibited rapprochement of Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana with the La Moncloa negotiators, first for the constitution of the Congress Table and now for the possible re-election of Pedro Sánchez, has formalized the change of direction of the official independence movement and has slowed down the harangues that, in the last decade, used to inflame September 11 in Catalonia. The two parties that control the political story of separatism agree on the advisability of adopting a restrained attitude in order to reach agreements with the Government. The pactista strategy gives immediate political returns, both formations monopolize the attention of the investiture and squeeze the profitability of the meager 7 seats that each one has in Congress, but it carries the risk of generating misunderstanding and detachment from the bases. The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), the entity that organized the 9/11 demonstration in Barcelona, ​​has already warned the parties that not everything goes: “The agreement we want is the independence of Catalonia.”

This Monday, the Catalan independence movement passes its September exam at the Diada. The ANC has highlighted that it is waiting for 200 coaches arriving from outside Barcelona. On 9/11 2017, with preparations for 1-O in full swing, the ANC transported 1,800 buses to the demonstration in the Catalan capital. The entity is in low hours, but tries to keep its volume high. This Sunday he called for the resignation of a government official, Oriol Duran, after he called the president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, “Doña Pureza.”

Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana have held, since the night of July 23, the role of arbitrator of the governability of Spain, a role that both parties play without showing signs of discomfort. Nothing to do with the balances that, in its day, Esquerra made to camouflage the negotiation with the Government for the pardons of the politicians condemned by the 1-O referendum and very far from the manifestations with which Junts has censored the rapprochements with the Government. “We are not going to Madrid to invest any Spanish president, it is not the objective,” said Míriam Nogueras, leader of Junts in Congress, during the campaign. Carles Puigdemont himself, a fugitive from Spanish justice, stated two months ago that he feels “politically persecuted” by the Government.

Puigdemont personally designs Junts’ negotiating strategy with the government in office, “he has no position in the party and no one asks him for responsibilities”, observes a source close to the Junts leadership, and has managed to silence the critical voices that question the swerve tactical given by the post-convergent formation. On August 17, just a couple of hours before Francina Armengol became president of Congress, Junts summoned her executive in a telematic meeting, where the general secretary, Jordi Turull, explained that the former president’s guidelines were clear: there had been agreement with the PSOE. Nobody replied.

The demand for an amnesty for those accused of the process is the network that supports Junts and Esquerra while they negotiate the possible re-election of Pedro Sánchez. Republicans have publicly celebrated that Junts and Puigdemont “have laid the foundations to enter politics.” In its manifesto for the Diada, JxCat warns that it has not renounced nor will it renounce unilateralism “as a legitimate resource” to assert its rights. The party reaffirms the “legitimacy” of 1-O. The negotiations for the composition of the Congress Table, first, and for the inauguration of the president, now, have focused the spotlight on the figure of the former Catalan president who fled to Belgium, and that leadership stings in Esquerra. President Pere Aragonès has warned, in an interview with El Periódico, that it will be the Government that negotiates any issue that affects the political conflict between Catalonia and the rest of Spain. “If they end up offering the possibility of addressing the resolution, then we will all have to be here.”

The independence movement propagated for a long time that the only thing that Catalan politicians have to talk about in Madrid are the terms of the divorce between Catalonia and Spain, something that ERC qualified in the last legislature to close agreements with the Government. Together, which is outside the Generalitat and does not rule in any of the four Catalan capitals, the argument has also evolved. From his list of demands to support the incumbent president, he has even removed references to self-determination.

What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.

Subscribe

The Diada represents a public litmus test for the two pro-independence parties and their pact strategy with the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez. Last year Aragonès and the senior officials of ERC decided not to attend the Barcelona demonstration, claiming to feel publicly persecuted for their negotiating strategy with the Government. Junts, which instigated the reproaches of the most radical independence movement against ERC, has approached pactism. La Diada will evaluate on the street what impact this change of course has.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

#Catalan #independence #movement #tests #pactist #turn #streets