Together for Catalonia (Junts) has opened its umpteenth internal battle. This time, the trigger was the speech given last Friday by the Catalan MP and Bureau member, Aurora Madaula, who, in the context of a plenary session on violence against women, denounced "silent violence by colleagues". Discontent over Madaula's accusations led to a meeting of the Junts standing committee being called on Sunday evening with a parliamentary group meeting to address the issue this Tuesday. The latter meeting, however, has done nothing but highlight the internal rift. The confrontation included open discrepancies between the president of Junts, Laura Borràs, and the general secretary, Jordi Turull, on the party's response to the case. For now, Junts has postponed the national council meeting that it has planned for this Saturday.
Turull argued, according to sources present, that Sunday's meeting had decided that, going beyond this current episode, it was necessary to replace Madaula in her position at the Bureau, given that she does not have the confidence of the current speaker of Parliament, Anna Erra (also of Junts); while Borràs allegedly replied that before deciding on that point, the party must carry out all the procedures established in response to accusations of harassment and sexism, meaning that the matter would have to be considered by the party's guarantees committee.
Without the speaker's confidence
In the background is the fact that Madaula is part of the circle closest to Borràs, which is why the former speaker chose her to occupy a place on the Bureau, a position previously held by another MP politically close to her, Jaume Alonso Cuevillas. However, Madaula does not have the support of the speaker Anna Erra, and the party leadership is pushing for her replacement. For her replacement to be possible, Madaula would have to resign from the position, given that her name was chosen by a vote of the full Parliament.
It all came to a head last week when Madaula supported a manifesto from a pro-abortion NGO in Andorra on behalf of Junts without consulting the party, and this support was later disavowed by Junts. The indignation at this episode is thought to have been behind the comments she made on Friday during the parliamentary session to mark Saturday's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Speaking in that debate, she was visibly emotional at certain moments, and in addition to talking about silent violence from colleagues, she denounced that it was also violence when "they belittle your work, they don't listen to you or they modify your proposal without your opinion".
Leaders close to Turull, consider that the controversy unleashed on Friday by this address in Parliament was not accidental and underline the fact that, while the Bureau member was launching her accusations, Borràs, who was following from the guest seating, was tweeting the videos of her assertions. From the sector closest to the Junts president, however, this is denied: they characterise what is happening is a campaign to discredit Madaula and remove her from the position.