The presentation in society of the Crida Nacional per la República - the National Call for the Republic - an initiative of Catalan presidents Carles Puigdemont and Quim Torra along with Jordi Sànchez, president of the Together for Catalonia (JxCat) parliamentary group and in preventive prison in Lledoners jail, followed the planned script to the letter: a mission aimed at unity, ideologically transversal in character, in favour of peaceful disobedience and promising to dissolve itself when the Republic of Catalonia becomes a reality. Its format as a movement and not a political party, which also allows for dual political activism, allows it to bring together people of different sensibilities. Closely watched, though, by the two political formations that it strategically and electorally collides with on the pro-independence playing field: Republican Left (ERC) and the Popular Unity Candidature (CUP). Both see it as just another refoundation of the centre-right Convergència of the 1980s, and as a consequence, an electoral adversary in the future.
In fact, the political argument developed largely by Jordi Sànchez, with contributions from the Catalan prisoners that are part of the JxCat group - especially Josep Rull, but also Jordi Turull and Joaquim Forn - aims to disrupt the strategy of the ERC of Oriol Junqueras which plans to stand separately, under its own party brand, in the municipal elections next May, and also in the city of Barcelona. The new initiative also seeks to regain the spirit of the Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) electoral coalition in the Catalan parliament in the 2015 elections in the face of the current split in the Catalan chamber between JxCat and ERC.
The mise-en-scene of the Crida, with a full house in the Nou Congost sports pavilion in Manresa, will from now on become the political platform of president Puigdemont. This is indisputable. In one week, Puigdemont has formed and publicly launched the two bodies that will serve as a lever for his political action from Brussels, the other being the Council of the Republic, for international and institutional policy. This organ, which does incorporate an ERC presence, will serve to internationalize the Catalan conflict, especially in Europe, and exiled minister Comín (ERC) will play an important role in its work. It will also have an institutional function, since its political proposals will be fed to the government, with whom it will have fluid communication.
The Crida, on the other hand, will be the instrument for internal policy. The party (at present, movement) of Puigdemont after his disagreements with the PDeCAT, whose leaders have never managed to establish a smooth partnership with the exiled president. First, with Marta Pascal, who ended up resigning, and, more recently, with David Bonvehí. Neither of them was in Manresa on Saturday.