"Sectarianism and electoral calculation." That is how Together for Catalonia (Junts) sees the decision of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to bring forward the elections to the Catalan Parliament - by several months - and hold them on Sunday, May 12th. Before the media from the press room of Parliament, the Junts general secretary, Jordi Turull, argued that this early election call is the "proof of a failure which the Catalan president was warned about". "We warned Aragonès that it was not possible to govern in absolute minority and we did so outside Parliament too. He was elected with a majority of 52% pro-independence voters, he pledged to complete the process towards independence and the result is that his action has undone pro-independence unity", criticized Turull.
"We have always wanted Puigdemont as our candidate"
Faced with the fact that the election call takes place at a time when Junts does not have a designated candidate, the general secretary asserted that they will go with "the best candidate for president" and that it will be "someone who has the nation in their head and their heart". In this regard, he went even further and adsserted that they have always wanted the president in exile, Carles Puigdemont, to be the head of the list: "On the day of the possible investiture debate he will be able to be in Catalonia due to the amnesty law". Thus, he compared the possible candidacy of Puigdemont with those of [rivals] who "perhaps had more vocation to be civil governor or government delegate than to be the president of a country".
Asked about the feasibility that the Catalan president in exile could be the leader of Junts in this election, Turull maintained that it is possible: "You have always heard me saying that we want him to be the candidate. The person we all have in our heads, with this calendar, the day of the possible investiture, he will be in Catalonia. We have seen justice do everything, but yes, he can be a candidate." It should be noted that Puigdemont already led the Junts electoral ticket in the elections of February 14th 2021, but the effective candidate was Laura Borràs, who was number 2 on the list for Barcelona. From the party they recognize that the MEP would not be able to campaign in Catalonia, but he would be able to be in the country when the investiture debate is held, weeks after the election. Faced with the "electoral calculation" that Turull considers to have been weighed up in the Republican Left (ERC) government's decision, the Junts leader is convinced that "perhaps this calculation could go wrong". "In fact, every time they have done it, it has gone wrong and this time will be no different," he added.