Àngels Chacón presents Centrem, another party to revive moderate Catalanism

Àngels Chacón, ex-leader of PDeCAT and ex-councilor of the Government, presented this afternoon the Centrem party, a new formation that aims to resuscitate moderate Catalanism and which he has baptized as the first of the

. With the immediate objective of attending the next municipal elections in 2023, the project plans to hold its founding congress on March 13. Centrem was born with the desire to unite militants from small parties born after the extinction of Convergència -Lliures or Convergents-, but also from others who reject nationalism -such as the Lliga- and independent people. “We have made an effort: we all believe that Catalonia is a political subject and has the right and the duty to increase its self-government. Any option has to be agreed and within the legal system ”, pointed out Chacón.

Dismissed in 2020 by the

Quim Torra for not aligning with Carles Puigdemont, Chacón has stated that the promoters aspire to break the mental framework of “all or nothing” and that they flee from the “partisan fights and ethereal proclamations without content” that they have carried , he says, to Catalonia, but also to Barcelona, ​​to “political and social irrelevance”. Covered by a dozen party promoters and under the slogan

Chacón has admitted the difficulty involved in bringing together in the same project “Catalanists, sovereign federalists and independentists. “There are many sensitivities, but we all agree that the solution has to be registered in the legal framework, agreed upon and voted on by all citizens. We do not want confrontation by system or unilateralism ”.

The presentation of the training has been conceived to give all the prominence to Chacón and without the presence of former CiU deputy Antoni Fernández Teixidó, leader of Lliures (former deputy Roger Muntanyola, member of the group, has attended); Germà Gordó, from Convergents (Teresa Pitarch has attended) and the political scientist Astrid Barrio (Lliga) in a very discreet second row. The deputy in Congress, Sergi Miquel, has been the only PDeCAT member supporting Chacón. The other public position present has been Adrià Castelví, mayor of Castellví de Rosanes. The former councilor has admitted that Artur Mas, president of PDeCAT, remains outside the project and that he has preferred to maintain a more institutional “role” as president.

The party plans to hold its founding congress on March 13 where the ideological and organizational presentation will be approved. In December Chacón sent a letter to the PDeCAT membership, resigning to lead the party and is now running to lead the new formation. The congress will decide whether Centrem accepts or not the double membership of its affiliates. The promoters maintain that it is not a party of parties but the model is similar to that of Catalunya en Comú, which began to walk in this way until the formations that created it (Initiative, EUiA or Bcomú) cede the leading role to the brand. mother. Chacón has shown his confidence that he will maintain good relations with the PDeCAT and hopes that the double membership will be temporary.

The party's first objective will be to stand in the municipal elections of 2023 and will probably seek an alliance with PDeCAT on the use of electoral rights. The dispersion of the center-right will repeat itself: Marta Pascal's Partit Nacionalista de Catalunya, also plans to attend the elections while the Christian Democrats of Units maintain a stable alliance with the PSC. Chacón has been hopeful and has answered this way when asked why a convergent militant, who has seen his party have constantly mutated in recent years, had to be seduced: “We have not stood in any elections. We have lived through troubled times. This is the first

and we want to overcome this paralysis.

We are united by dialogue, consensus and respect for legality ”.