ERC, EH Bildu and the BNG reissue their coalition for the European elections

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), EH Bildu and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) have decided to reissue the electoral coalition with which they ran in the European elections four years ago and with which they obtained three seats. Now Republics, as that alliance of a Catalan, a Basque and a Galician party that emphasized visualizing its demand for self-determination was called, will be repeated again for the electoral event next June. But on this occasion it incorporates a fourth party: the militancy of the Balearic party Ara Més has voted in favor of running for that nationalist candidacy instead of going within Sumar, the platform with which it ran in the last general elections. The pact was signed this Thursday in Barcelona.

Diana Riba, the ERC candidate and candidate for re-election, has explained that the axis of her political proposal for the next legislature will continue to be the demand for the right of self-determination for Catalonia, Euskadi and Galicia, as well as the co-official status of Catalan, Basque and Galician as languages ​​of the EU institutions. Now Repúblicas will promote a “community clarity law” to “help resolve sovereignty conflicts within the European Union,” and hopes that the three languages ​​will not only be co-official in the community institutions but also “working languages ​​in the European Parliament.”

“EH Bildu is going to address this challenge from a European perspective, standing up to the austerity policies that have already been announced, and betting on human security and the defense of peace against those who talk to us about NATO, wars and militarism,” added the candidate for the Basque party, Pernando Barrena.

ERC, EH Bildu and the BNG resumed the coalition five years ago to go together to the European elections, something they had already tried in 2009 with the so-called People's Europe (then with Aralar instead of EH Bildu) and which promoted collaboration closer of Catalan and Basque sovereigntists in the Senate, for example. In 2019, the date of the last European elections, the political moment was complicated, as the leaders of the

were being tried in the Supreme Court . In fact, it was Oriol Junqueras himself, who was in that dock due to his status as vice president of the Generalitat in 2017, who headed the European list, in an attempt to give visibility to his case before the international community. He resigned from the seat but the Supreme Court received a slap on the wrist from the Court of Justice of the EU, which considered that he had acted incorrectly by not releasing him before the sentencing of the

so that he could collect the minutes.

Junqueras, Riba and Barrena won their seats thanks to the more than 1.2 million votes that Ahora Repúblicas obtained, 5.5% of the total votes cast in Spain. More than 730,000 supports were garnered in Catalonia. In contrast to the exceptional moment of 2019, where even Carles Puigdemont was the head of the Junts list from Brussels (where he had left to avoid being tried), the Republicans are now suffering a serious demobilization of their electorate. Oriol Junqueras, leader of ERC, present at this Thursday's event, applauded the agreement and said about his electoral coalition partners, EH Bildu and BNG: “They are our partners, but much more than our partners. They are our friends, companions and allies in many struggles for a long time, decades and, in some cases, for a century.”

Now Repúblicas incorporates a new partner this time to gain territorial implantation, in an operation in which Sumar has lost. The bases of the Balearic party Ara Més voted in an internal consultation between two options: repeat with Yolanda Díaz's platform as they had done in the last general elections or join the nationalist list. 89.7% preferred the experiment compared to 10.3% who wanted to repeat it with Sumar. “Balearic sovereignty has a lot to say in Europe,” said the training coordinator, Mateu Mates.