Sovereignism coldly receives Aragonès' proposal for a "common front" before 23-J

The president of the Generaliat, Pere Aragonès, during the control session to the Government of this Wednesday in the Parliament.Marta Pérez (EFE)

The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has summoned this Wednesday the sovereigntist political forces – the independentists and En Comú Podem – to explore the complicities aroused by his proposal for a "common front" to face the electoral advance of the general elections of the month of July. The previous of the individual meetings has been the control session to the Government in the Parliament and, according to the interventions of these groups, nothing seems to indicate that the Republicans manage to get away with it. Junts insists on a unity in Madrid that ERC has so far vehemently rejected. The leader of the opposition, the socialist Salvador Illa, has taken advantage of his turn to criticize the attempt to weave a consensus of the country without counting on them – they are the first force in the Chamber – and attribute the offer of Aragonès to the loss of orientation of his Executive. "Catalonia does not need fronts, but a good government," he snapped.

The control session has staged the electoral hangover of a municipal election in which ERC has lost one of every three votes it had obtained in 2019, thus plummeting from the first position to the third in vote. Elections in which, at the state level, the socialist defeat – except in Catalonia – has led President Pedro Sánchez to advance the generals. Aragonès sees in that decision of the leader of the PSOE a capitulation "I do not know who gives the party for lost from the start. Not me. You won't find me here. Because the one who calls elections in advance and already gives for winners to the others and calls for a reaction is not me, it is the president of the Spanish Government, "said the president.

Aragonès had previously been criticized because last Tuesday, he presented his idea of a "common front" framing it as an instrument of resistance to a right-wing government and not as an electoral element to triumph at the polls in July. "Defending Catalonia from the PP and Vox involves winning the PP and Vox at the polls and reissuing the progressive government. We do not lower our arms, we come to win, for a new left-wing government, "the leader of the commons, Jéssica Albiach, had snapped. En Comú Podem will meet with Aragonès, but he has made it clear that his red line is the formation founded by Carles Puigdemont. "With Junts not even around the corner," he added.

The leader of Junts, Albert Batet, has insisted on his idea of a single list for the independence formations to concur together on 23-J and thus maximize the results, although making it clear that it must be "an independence front". The Republicans, after the experience at the regional level of Junts pel Sí, in 2016, reject that formula. Aragonès, in order not to close the debate in its tracks, has been open to hearing all the proposals but without making any commitment. "I could come here with a list, but I won't even hint at it," he said.

The president of Junts, Laura Borràs, was the first to take the glove of the proposal of the head of the Government and will be at the meeting this afternoon. Even Puigdemont himself, via Twitter, has expressed his reservations about the announcements of the Republicans and believe that the 'no' to the unitary list will be the definitive proof of the unwillingness of ERC to achieve a real independence unity. Aragonès has tried to calm tempers by accepting that it is not possible "in 24 hours" to end the dynamic of constant reproaches, but that the current political landscape can serve to "begin to generate a turning point".

The CUP will also attend, which also does not see clear the intentions of the Republicans. For them, the decision has more to do with the bad results of ERC at the polls than with a real will to stitch up secessionism. The deputy Eulàlia Reguant has accused him of changing the script "at the stroke of a ballot" and has asked him to reflect on whether the policy of pact and dialogue with the Socialists can be the reason for the demobilization of the vote in the past elections.

The PSC does not feel at all challenged by Aragonès' proposal. The president proposed last Tuesday, that this front manage, among other things, to allow the pacts that are now negotiated in the City Councils and supramunicipal entities to be closed in an independentist key, to ensure that the secessionist majority maintains the presidency of the Parliament and find formulas to guarantee a "strong Government" (now it is monocolor and only has 33 of 152 deputies. For Salvador Illa, the new idea is a new "change of course" and, he said, so many turns are a sign of "a disorientation". "Catalonia does not need fronts, Catalonia needs a good government, clear ideas and firm convictions to prosper and move forward." And he took the opportunity to recall the reality of the parliamentary arc: It cannot be said that we are working for a consensus of the country "outside the first party in Catalonia".

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