The president of Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, announced this Friday that he will not stand for re-election in office, alleging that new leadership is needed to promote the pro-independence strategy.
Cuixart, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for a crime of rebellion and pardoned in June by the Government along with the rest of the procés leaders, has advanced that his successor will be the doctor of Philosophy Xavier Antich, professor of Aesthetics at the University of Girona, if the 190,000 members of Òmnium endorse it at the assembly scheduled for February 26.
In statements to the station in RAC1, Cuixart has revealed that the current vice president of the entity, Marcel Mauri, will not appear to reissue the mandate either. “I will not stand for re-election. Neither does Mauri. We always said that we would do the relay together if the partners wanted it that way. We are not going anywhere: we will continue to act as activists,” he said. After spending more than three years in prison, Cuixart has made it clear that he has no intention of taking any steps to join a party or participate in the political front line. "There was no better time to pass the baton than now", he stressed in reference to the conclave that will formalize the relay.
Convinced that the independence movement needs new leadership, Cuixart has wanted to lead by example and has chosen, Òmnium sources point out, to take the step. “We cannot give up Puigdemont, Junqueras or Gabriel, but it is obvious that in the current situation, which needs a shared strategy, new leadership is needed to make it possible to carry it out”, he pointed out in reference to former president Carles Puigdemont (Junts ), Oriol Junqueras (ERC) and Anna Gabriel (CUP). After the interview, Cuixart posted this message online: “The founders taught us to be useful rather than important, and new leadership is needed everywhere. Everyone is necessary and no one is essential”.
Last November, Cuixart published the essay
Aprenentatges i una proposta
(Learnings and a proposal)
where he proposes a return to the mobilization of independence with a strategy of civil disobedience to subtract "legitimacy", he explained, from the State and "empower" the citizenry.
Under the slogan
We will do
it again, Cuixat claims in the book the referendum “without adjectives” and accepts that right now an agreed referendum cannot be held (the ERC proposal), nor unilateral (CUP if there is no agreement) or rescue “ the mandate of 1-O” (Junts) if beforehand the citizens are not willing to get involved in large mobilizations and the possible costs of disobeying.
Despite the publication of the essay, Cuixart, who has been in office since 2016, has kept a low profile in recent months. The majority of former pro-independence leaders, except for Jordi Sànchez, general secretary of Junts, remain in a discreet second political row. His intention is to remain linked to Òmnium as just another activist but outside the entity's governing body. Cuixart joined the Òmnium board in 2010, when the demonstration against the Statute ruling was held, and in 2016 he was elected president after the disappearance of Muriel Casals.
Under his mandate, the entity has grown to 190,000 members.
The independence leaders have thanked Cuixart for his "commitment" to Catalonia and the "shared struggles".
President Pere Aragonès thanked the leader of Òmnium for his "always positive and open" attitude that "marks the path towards a free Catalonia".
“Thank you for what you shared, a lot and achieved”, said former president Carles Puigdemont.
The CUP, in another message on the network, has thanked Cuixart for his dedication and "incorruptible commitment".