The vote is underway. The speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Laura Borràs, and the former government minister Jordi Turull have rallied members of Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) to take part in the congress that the pro-independence party will hold tomorrow in Argelers, to vote for the new executive for which they have presented a joint candidacy, in a process which, in fact, has opened telematically this Friday. Borràs is running for the presidency of the party, which has until now been held by Carles Puigdemont, and Turull, for the general secretariat, headed by Jordi Sànchez since the party was officially founded in 2020. "We ask for your confidence in voting for the election of the new leadership of Junts. And, above all, we ask you to participate and vote for us together and for all of us", they state in a letter to the party's members.
Borràs and Turull agreed on this joint candidacy to avoid an open confrontation between the different sectors of the party they represent. They have agreed on a distribution of the members of the direction, and that the presidency of the party will also take on executive functions, given that they will share responsibilities. "The candidacy we are leading is a representation of the party we are and the country we want to build. A candidacy made up of committed people, with the will to get to work to carry out this project", they affirm in the letter.
All members of Junts who have belonged to the party for at least six months and are currently paying their dues will be able to take part in the voting, an electronic process which began at 9am this Friday and will remain open until 2pm on Saturday. The members will have to cast separate votes for the president and the general secretary, the four vice-presidents, the secretaries in charge of organization and finance, and the twenty members who complete the executive. The physical location of the congress will be held in the French state: specifically, the town of Argelers, in Northern Catalonia, enabling the attendance of exiles: Carles Puigdemont, Toní Comín and Lluís Puig. The choice of the new leadership will be the only item considered this weekend, but it will be followed by a second session on 16th and 17th July in L'Hospitalet.
National emancipation movement
Borràs and Turull affirm in the letter that Junts follows the “logic of the national emancipation movement”, as “an instrument of national construction and political action in favour of the liberty of Catalonia and the progress and well-being of its people”. In the text, they assert that Junts is a "new, open, democratic party, born of the generosity and the coming together of people and the cultural capital and baggage of the plural ideological traditions of independence".
The congress is being held two years after the formation of Junts as a political party in July 2020.