ERC then continues to cook internally the failure of 12M. The party has announced that Oriol Junqueras will resign from the party's presidency for a few months, at least until the congress that will take place on November 30. Junqueras will leave office after the European elections on June 9 and has not yet announced whether he will stand again as a candidate for that new congress.
It was not the only news this Wednesday evening: “We do not want to reproduce either the messianic leadership or the political elites”, is the message from Rovira, who has also rejected the “use of emotional populism”.
As the party said in a statement, Junqueras informed the party leadership on Wednesday that he will leave the ERC presidency after the European elections “in order to open a process of reflection and active listening before deciding on his future.” The announcement came after Junqueras himself announced in a letter on Tuesday that he wanted to continue in office.
The news at ERC occurred after a training executive meeting that lasted more than four hours. In addition to Junqueras and Rovira (from Switzerland), the acting president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, acting councilors such as Joan Ignasi Elena, Carles Campuzano, Ester Capella, Meritxell Serret and Tània Vergeo, the former president of the Parliament Carme, took part in the meeting , among other things.
So 12M's ERC debacle continues to take over after Monday the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, announced that he was leaving politics. In addition to Junqueras and Rovira's announcement, the ERC board, which met for more than four hours this Wednesday, agreed to hold a national congress on November 30 “to reflect on the future of the country and the party.”
Junqueras and Rovira have led the party since 2011, when they took over from a historic formation in crisis, with the worst results after the tripartite government. Both retained command even as they suffered the criminal consequences of the trial: Junqueras remained president during the four years he spent in prison, and Rovira also remained in office from Switzerland, a country where he has resided since 2018 and from which he has not yet returned, pending the approval of the amnesty.
With him, the ERC grew to its historic heights, winning the general and municipal elections in 2019 and reaching the milestone of returning to the presidency of the Generalitat in 2021, winning the battle with the Junts to lead the independence movement. But since then, ERC has gone through a downward cycle translated into massive setbacks during the last election cycle. The poor results of 12M (ERC lost 13 alternates) were the last straw.
“I have been in office for more than twelve years and I think it is time for change, because of democratic radicalism,” Rovira said in his farewell letter, expressing his belief that the formation “needs changes” since the poor results of ERC of the general and municipal passes.
“ERC must update the political strategy to once again innovate, expand and mark a new milestone on the path of national liberation and social progress in Catalonia,” continued Rovira, who has called on the party to “regain its pioneering leadership” , in a veiled message to Junqueras.
Because we do not know whether Junqueras will run for re-election at the November congress, the plan drawn up by the current outgoing leadership includes a transition in November after the congress, but an exit of the current leaders in June. just as the ERC must decide whether to facilitate an investiture of Salvador Illa or place the Catalan legislature in a logjam that will lead to new elections in October.