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INPRIMATU
Independence is strengthened to the left
  • ERC has taken a step ahead of Junts per Catalunya and announced that it will be presented to the presidency of the Generalitat to receive the support of the doubling of the Cup and En Comú. Ciutadans has collapsed and Vox will replace him with eleven seats. The Illa effect has obtained the majority of the unionist votes, but without the possibility of governing, according to Rajoy.
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Pere Aragones (ERC), Dolors Sabater (CUP), Laura Borras (Junts) eta Salvador Illa (PSC). Argazkia: Arainfo

O14 has had two main features: the abstention and the left turn of the independence majority. Participation in the elections of 21 December 2017 – 155. It is 20 points below what is stated in the article. This active disaffection or fear of the pandemic has more strongly affected the unionist or federalist parties than the independentists. Two data support this: Independence achieved 50 per cent of the vote for the first time (50.7 per cent if the 76,000 PDeCAT votes were added to the vote); and independence deputies rose from 70 to 74 thanks to the Cup leap, with five new seats.

Virtually all parties have lost a significant number of votes, but the bloodiest case is that of Ciutadans, which passes from 36 to 6 seats and loses one million voters. The PSC and Vox have received their inheritance, with 16 more MEPs in the case of the Salvador Illa party - 33 in total, but without arithmetic possibilities of governance - and the extreme right has come into the Chamber with force. JxCat has lost 400,000 voters, while ERC has lost 334,000. The Cup almost equals the 190,000 votes achieved three years ago, but doubles its representation: It has five Members in Barcelona, two in Girona and regains its seat in Lleida and Tarragona. In Comú Podem it holds eight seats, but it loses 133,000.

Aragonese presents himself to the investiture

ERC President Oriol Junqueras said at the election night that "for the first time in 80 years, ERC will take over the presidency of the Generalitat", with "war, dictatorship and autonomous regime we have put an end to 80 years of marginalization". Pere Aragonès stressed that "for the first time we have exceeded 50% of the votes and we are going to embark on a new stage to achieve the freedom of political prisoners and the return of exiles. We want a referendum, no repression." And he sent a message in English with the motto "sit & talk." It established the following: "We do not settle for independence MPs, but want to join sovereign MPs," added Garitano. Message clearly addressed to the public of En Comú.

Jessica Albiach (In Comú Podem) also underlined the idea of turning left, but with a look at the PSC and not to mention the candidacy of the Cup: "We need a left-wing government and I will call on Mr. Illa and Mr. Aragonese to sit at the table and build a large, vetoless left-wing government."

The Cup's list head, Dolors Sabater, expressed satisfaction with the results and said that "it is serious that the extreme right has entered the Parlament with a force that we would never imagine." "In times of heavy repression, in which the political conflict has not been resolved, we have to go quickly to take action and mark the road map as a country." And he added: "You're wondering what we're going to do and how we're going to condition it, and we're going to keep saying what we've said during the campaign. From here we appeal to trade unions, organisations and social movements: we commit ourselves to broad consensus. The people of Catalonia are active in two things: claiming the right to self-determination and going to the left".

Unionism, without the possibility of governing

Salvador Illa addressed the Catalan population and the Spanish state in a speech similar to that of the victory of Inés Arrimadas on the electoral night of 2017: "Catalonia has today taught a lesson in civic decency and maturity. Our candidature has clearly won in number of votes, which means turning the page to write a new one. I will listen again and meet again. It is the Catalonia that has always returned, the Catalonia that has never left. Today I will tell you that I will come to the investiture. Arithmetic is clear and does not allow him to be president of the Generalitat. The results of the Ciutadans disaster and the PP led by Alejandro Fernández, the last force in the Chamber, will make it impossible. Carlos Carrizosa, from Ciutadans, acknowledged the defeat, but assured that they will continue "working to defend Catalans, Spaniards and Europeans without any kind of scandal", referring to the extreme right, despite having reached agreements to govern in Andalusia and Madrid. The Ignacio Garriga party celebrated the results in a hotel in Barcelona with prominent neo-Nazi militants such as Ortega Smith and former MSR member Alejandro Fernández, who had participated years earlier in a tribute to Rudolf Hess in Germany. The presence of the fascist party in the Parlament of Catalonia will be one of the biggest headaches of the legislature, after 220,000 votes and surprising victories in municipalities such as Vilamalla or La Pobla de Mafumet.