"Welcome to the club!" That is how Pere Aragonès, the current Catalan president and Catalan Republican Left (ERC) candidate to repeat in the role, reacted when he was asked about the proposal to cancel Catalonia's debt with the state as one of the conditions for negotiating the Spanish government's budget, which was announced by Carles Puigdemont, the Together for Catalonia (Junts) candidate, from Argelers this morning. "They told us that confrontation was necessary and now they are negotiating, we defended a unique financing regime for Catalonia and they told us that it was partisan. Six weeks later, it becomes their star proposal. It seems good to me that they want to cancel the debt with the state, because this is the great agreement that ERC achieved", he said, referring to the pact made with the Socialists (PSOE) for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez last November.
"I'll wait to see in six hours what other proposals they pick up," quipped the president from Montjuïc in Barcelona, with the symbolic Four Columns by architect Puig and Cadafalch in the background at an event to present his referendum proposal. "This shows that the true leadership is being exercised by the Republican Left," said Aragonès.
At the event on Thursday evening at which ERC launched its campaign, the party's leader in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, used his speech to ask all pro-independence supporters to focus more on explaining "why" they want to be an independent state and leave aside the "how" to do it. His party, however, began the first day of the campaign by explaining its referendum proposal, which they have asserted as a red-line component to reach agreements after the election, along with their unique funding porposal and the defence of the Catalan language. "We aspire to lead and bring everyone with us in favour of these three objectives that are shared by an immensity of Catalans", resolved Aragonès who was also accompanied by Laura Vilagrà, vice-president and party list number 2, as well as Alba Vergés and Josep Maria Jové , others.
1st October as starting point for new referendum
"The country needs a referendum and we will make it possible", insisted the president, who at the beginning of April already presented his proposal, including the question: "Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state?". This Friday he explained how he had been accumulating international support in the past legislature, and on Wednesday met with the president of Northern Ireland, and pointed out that it is essential to have "an internal social force and the support of organized citizens". Vilagrà set as a starting point the referendum of 1st October, where, according to the list number 2, "the organizational capacity of the people and the institutions was demonstrated", while in response to the Spanish government's rejection to such an agreed consultation, the current Catalan vice-president recalled the milestones her party has reached so far in the negotiation: recognition of the political conflict, the pardons of the nine political prisoners, the reform of the crime of sedition, and finally, the amnesty.