The good relationship that pro-independence parties the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and EH Bildu have maintained during this last legislature - one with a Catalan support base and the other, a Basque one - became clear a few weeks ago when they decided to run together in the Senate elections and held a joint event in the Basque Country with the presence of Oriol Junqueras and the Republican candidate for Congress Gabriel Rufián. And this Monday, the ERC president reinforced his commitment to a new self-determination referendum, with the proposal to hold simultaneous votes on the independence of the Basque Country and of Catalonia. "If we do it simultaneously it will be much more difficult for them to defeat us and we will open the doors to the international community, which knows that it cannot turn its back on peoples who peacefully and democratically demand that their individual and collective rights be respected," said Junqueras.
Arnaldo Otegi would not put a date on Junqueras' proposal,
The Catalan Republican Left leader was speaking in Durango, a city in which EH Bildu achieved recent electoral success, but where the more conservative Basque Nationalists of the PNV took the victory away from them thanks to the votes of the Basque Socialists (PSE) and the Spanish conservatives, the PP. Junqueras didn't mention these aspects, but rather focused on recalling the self-determination processes that Basques and Catalans have followed, regretting that until now they have followed separate paths, a fact that has resulted in defeats. For this reason, he opted to promote new sovereignty processes at the same time that should culminate in two simultaneous self-determination referendums.
For his part, Arnaldo Otegi, general coordinator of EH Bildu, has agreed to describe the Basque Country and Catalonia as two nations that aim for independence and a republic, but preferred not to put a date on this proposal by Junqueras: "When there is an opportunity, we will vote. When that arrives, we will decide and build the republic and we will be independent states and they will not be able to prevent it no matter how many repressive prescriptions they put in place," he said.