Puigdemont is re-elected president of his 'parallel Generalitat', with the vote of less than 10% of the members

Carles Puigdemont has been re-elected president of the Consell de la República in a vote in which less than 10% of the entity's census participated.

8,941 people have voted, among the 89,970 members who were called to a telematic election to decide who commands the private independence association that Puigdemont created from Belgium, after leaving Spain in 2017 to avoid being tried.

Puigdemont has obtained 92.4% support, but the endorsement is weak, since participation has not exceeded 9.9%.

In 2021, when he presented his candidacy to lead the Consell, the former Catalan president obtained 21,000 votes, in elections that pitted him against Clara Ponsatí and that mobilized 25.7% of the census.

The elections to the Council of the Republic tested the degree of leadership that Puigdemont continues to exercise among the members of the organization that he himself created when he left for Belgium in 2017 and that he has always presented as a transversal platform to exercise a parallel Generalitat since abroad.

In practice, the Consell has barely played any relevant role in Catalan politics and both Esquerra and the CUP consider it a stronghold of Junts per Catalunya.

Puigdemont's dual role, as president of the Consell while being the main ideologue of Junts, has illuminated situations of conflict of interest.

The singer-songwriter and independence activist Lluís Llach revealed, two weeks ago, that he had resigned from the Consell for disagreeing with the former president's negotiations with the PSOE.

“I understand that a tool like the seven deputies in Madrid is very important, but at the same time I also see it as dangerous and compromising,” Llach said in statements to Vilaweb.

“But when he [Puigdemont], in some way, becomes the leader of the negotiation, I do not feel comfortable and decide to leave the Consell for this, only for this.

“I do not feel comfortable with these roles, even though I respect his political initiative.”

Puigdemont's re-election has occurred at a time when the Catalan independence movement has its sights set on the parliamentary evolution of the amnesty law.

The legal tool that should allow the judicial closure of all the causes that generated the 1-O referendum and the separatist challenge was destined to become, due to its significance, a kind of glue between the different factions of the independence movement.

However, Junts and ERC use the amnesty as a weapon and criticize each other about the way each party has approached the tests with the PSOE.

The Republicans do not hide that they are in a hurry to approve the law, while Junts extends the conversations with the Government under the excuse that the articles need to be strengthened and made more robust.

Carles Puigdemont and his lawyer Gonzalo Boye are in charge of designing JxCat's strategy in negotiating the amnesty.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on