Read in Catalan

ANC (Catalan National Assembly) has just set off a firework of still unknown proportions in the middle of negotiations between Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana, which originally seemed to be for the investiture of Carles Puigdemont as president of Catalonia as proposed by the Parliament's speaker, Roger Torrent, but which now seem to have taken a turn towards the new government's agenda and the set-up of the new executive. That ANC should threaten demonstrations in the streets if the two parties cannot reach an immediate agreement is very similar to Carme Forcadell's demand in September 2014 when, addressing then-president Artur Mas, she called out "President, posi les urnes" (President, put out the ballot boxes) from the lectern she was speaking at. And he ended up putting them out.

The request from ANC's secretariat has stung Esquerra, who say they're doing everything possible to not delay Puigdemont's investiture, which they want to be effective and to include a "road map" for the government. The party's unease goes back some way, as its spokespeople keep saying in private that Puigdemont's candidacy, which Junts per Catalonia still defends in public, aims to lead them into a dead-end street, given that the investiture of the president fired by article 155 is inviable as the Constitutional Court has said. In that same vein, that court will end up vetoing any modification which the Parliament could bring about, leaving any initiative as a dead-end.

But what's certain is that the ANC's move is definitely not unfounded since they have hundreds of thousands of members and have led the large-scale demonstrations held every 11th September since 2012. That the pro-independence world is increasing the pressure on Esquerra is clear and, as well as ANC and Junts per Catalunya, CUP, the smallest pro-independence party in the Parliament, has a similar position on  the subject of the investiture. At the time of Forcadell's public demand I said that the decisions of the political powers and the work of the pro-independence organisations should stay separate. Each has its functions and its not good to confuse the roles they have to perform. Among other factors, because unity and cohesion are values to preserve now and in the coming years. And the plurality of ANC and Òmnium have to be both a guarantee when promoting agreements and an example to audit their execution.