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This weekend the Catalan Republican Left (Esquerra Republicana, or ERC) has been holding its national conference in an absolutely exceptional political situation: party president Oriol Junqueras is in Estremera prison while secretary general Marta Rovira is in exile in Switzerland to avoid prison. This is the crude reality of the enormous damage caused by the three Spanish parties that supported article 155 and by Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena: the removal of the top leadership of both the pro-independence political groups that have governed Catalonia since 2016.

It is normal, then, that the party's national conference should be the place chosen to reassert the work it has done recently: from its participation in the referendum of October 1st, the institutional proclamation of the Republic later that month, the Catalan elections on December 21st and, finally, the governmental accord that allowed the investiture of Quim Torra as new president and left seven areas of government in Esquerra hands, including the two portfolios with the largest budgets, Education and Health.

The Republican convention will also be issuing its strategy report which is entitled "Now, the Catalan Republic", and the internal unanimity of the party that it presents should be noted. The new roadmap seeks to combine the defence of the positions taken by the independence movement with a certain dose of pragmatism. It also proposes the expansion of the social base of its support by stretching further to the left, even if that is at the expense of ceding some space to Together for Catalonia (JxCat). As ERC recognises, this is a venture which is not without risks, given the political tension being experienced in Catalonia, with numerous prisoners and exiles. But as well, it is the plan 2.0 that Oriol Junqueras had even before he went into prison. And it remained the plan, after he went in.

The national conference is also the occasion where new leadership is formalized. Vice president Pere Aragonès, the speaker of Parliament, Roger Torrent, leader of the ERC group in Parliament, Sergi Sabrià, and national spokesperson, Marta Vilalta, have been called to take the lead in this exceptional situation. And to learn fast. Since recent history shows that in Catalan politics there are no spells of calm weather. And there won't be, as long as the injustice and exceptionality of prisoners and exiles remains.