Imprisoned Catalan vice president and leader of the Catalan Republic Left (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, has announced that he intends to head his party's candidature for the European elections next May. Junqueras gave the news in a letter to party members to which the Catalan News Agency has had access.
"I want to continue fighting for the freedom of my country, as I have always done. I want to defend my political rights and the rights of all [in the independence movement] who are facing reprisals, that is what they want to take away from us, and for that reason I have decided to stand in the European elections, it is the best way to stop the repression they want to impose on us from being effective", the ERC leader argued.
1st October, overwhelming victory
"We are coming up to the 1st October, the day that changed everything, the day that the people and the institutions together made possible the self-determination referendum which they had told us would be impossible, the day that Europe and the world were shown one of the worst sides of this [Spanish] state. The 1st October was an overwhelming victory, as was 3rd October, and now we have to keep working to continue winning and defending the rights and freedoms of Catalonia and of all its citizens". With these words Junqueras opens his letter to the ERC party faithful.
The Republican leader explains that in spite of being in prison for almost 11 months he continues to be "absolutely proud" of what the Catalan people did on 1st October. "Holding a referendum is no crime, wanting a political change for my country and putting the decision in the hands of its citizens is no crime. And repression, obviously, is no solution", he declares.
With this background, Junqueras says he wants to carry on fighting for the freedom of Catalonia and defending his political rights and those of all those "facing reprisals". For this reason, he announces that he has decided to stand for the elections to the European parliament held in May, heading the ERC list, "as long as the party approves". This, he explains, is the result of a personal reflection that he shared with those of his colleagues "who are suffering repression" and from which he concluded that he felt he had the "strength and courage" to head the ERC candidature. Junqueras previously headed the ERC list for the European elections of 2009.
Beating the repression
For Junqueras, "the repression" can be beaten with "the best weapon, which is democracy". "We can't let them try to divide us; they want to leave is without a voice, and at every new opportunity, we must demonstrate that we are determined, that we are a majority and we are willing to give it everything to defend democracy, our civil and political rights and the sovereignty of the people of Catalonia," he added.
Junqueras asserted that internationalizing the cause of freedom and denouncing the judicial case against the independence movement is today "more necessary than ever" and he also sees it "indispensable" to defend the right to vote on 1st October and to denounce a trial "that will not be just". "To show Europe the weaknesses and the shameful aspects of the Spanish kingdom in Europe is today more important than ever", he concluded.
Current Catalan vice president and ERC presidential assistant, Pere Aragonès, read out the letter on Saturday morning outside Lledoners prison, where the jailed Junqueras is being held, along with six other pro-independence political prisoners.
