Now Republics. That's the name under which Catalan pro-independence party ERC will stand in this May's European Parliament election alongside the Basque EH Bildu and Galician BNG. The announcement was made by the Basque party today on Twitter. The three parties agreed in December to present this joint candidacy.
.@Josu_Juaristi: "En Ahora Repúblicas tenemos tres grandes áreas de trabajo:
— EH Bildu (@ehbildu) 16 de enero de 2019
➡️Trabajar por mejorar las condiciones de vida de la ciudadanía
➡️Luchar por el futuro de las naciones sin estado
➡️Trabajar por los derechos de las mujeres que desea arrebatar la extrema derecha pic.twitter.com/duMI9Z0OHs
The candidacy will be headed by ERC's president Oriol Junqueras, in pretrial detention for over a year now . Second will be Diana Riba, wife of Raül Romeva, imprisoned alongside Junqueras. Both Romeva and Junqueras have previously been MEPs. They will be followed by members of EH Bildu, BNG and then others from ERC, to ensure that all three parties have representation in the EU Parliament.
This isn't the first time that such a candidacy has been put together for an EU election. In both 2004 and 2009, ERC stood on joint lists with parties from around Spain, the second of which also included BNG. In 2014, however, ERC ended up standing alone to emphasise their individual identity at a time when tensions around the independence process were growing. That year, they were the party which received the most votes in Catalonia.