The Crida Nacional per la República, or National Call for the Republic, the platform launched by Catalan presidents Carles Puigdemont and Quim Torra, known colloquially as the Crida, has as of this weekend formed its own constituent governing bodies allowing it to act and take part in Catalan politics. The exiled Puigdemont appears as the originating president, the activist Jordi Sànchez - who has been in pre-trial jail for the barbarous total of 467 days - occupies the executive presidency and the Catalan deputy Toni Morral is secretary general. The Crida is a multipurpose tool intended to disappear when the Catalan Republic is attained, which does not seem close and has no date. It is certainly true that it is born as a transversal platform, but not a unitary one. In the fragmented world of Catalan independence each zone has its own strategy. As well as its own goals, interests and needs.
Tactically, the Crida backs three objectives: the restoration of Carles Puigdemont's presidency; the vindication of the mandate of the October 1st, 2017 referendum and the parliamentary proclamation of the Republic on October 27th, 2017; and thirdly, the maintenance of a unilateral path as an option towards real independence if Spain does not change its position. Obviously, they are not objectives pursued by the Crida alone, but they are far from being unitary positions held across the whole independence movement. Unity is undoubtedly the principal Achilles heel of any strategy that wants to be a winner, but the truth is that there is a lot of work to do to make that moment of victory a reality. Unity is not constructed on the basis of repeated slogans in favour of it, but with concessions and complicities, and right now there are very few of the first and none of the second.
From the prison cell he occupies at Lledoners, Jordi Sànchez has formed a polyhedral party executive containing more women than men. Some of his team have experience in government - Elsa Artadi, Laura Borràs and Damià Calvet - some have worked in the space of the Socialists, specifically Marina Geli and Ferran Mascarell; connected to the Repubican Left, there is Pep Andreu, and there is also Morral himself, who comes from the left-wing Iniciativa. Those that have their origins in the PDeCAT or Convergència can be counted on the fingers of one hand. All this gives them the transversality they claim, but no pro-independence organizations have formally joined the Crida, partly because they are wary that Puigdemont could end up devouring or distorting them. In the end, the reason is not important.
It seems inevitable that we will see the Crida competing in elections, sooner rather than later. Not in the municipal vote in May, but who knows whether they might stand for the European Parliament and almost certainly in the next Catalan elections, whenever they are - undoubtedly not be as soon as the opposition wants. In that, Pedro Sánchez and Quim Torra agree: the farther away the elections, the better.