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“I give up any intention to stand for the mayoralty of Barcelona and I say to all of you: let's embrace Ernest Maragall as a winning candidate". With these words, Alfred Bosch of the Republican Left (ERC) announced on Friday that he would not be making a bid for the municipal leadership of the Catalan capital in 2019 and instead he backed the candidature of the current Catalan foreign minister, Ernest Maragall.

In a special general assembly of the pro-independence party, Bosch explained that he had taken his decision in conjunction with Oriol Junqueras and Marta Rovira - party leaders who are in jail and exile respectively - and that his decision to step aside was out of “love” for the city. “Generosity means not giving up what you want the least, but what you want the most”, said Bosch, asserting that Barcelona needs a change and that Maragall is the “best candidate” that the city could have.

Bosch, until now the presumed ERC candidate for the Barcelona job, has acknowledged that renouncing the mayoralty is "a difficult moment" but it is in these circumstances that "courage, generosity and intelligence are needed". "With Ernest Maragall we are closer to victory," he said, praising Maragall's knowledge of the city and recalling that he bears the surname of the person who was the city's best mayor - his brother, Pasqual Maragall.

"Let's always be clear that greatness is not born in fame or success. Greatness is born in sacrifice. And now, to win Barcelona!" concluded Bosch.

The ERC politician, who has also been a spokesperson for his party in Madrid, offered himself to the party for "any new mission in which I am useful." It has been mooted that Bosch might assume the current task of Maragall as Catalan foreign minister, once the latter commits definitively to the mayoral bid.

Internal primaries

Bosch was selected in March this year as ERC mayoral candidate in an internal primary, after obtaining 87% of votes, although only 15% of the membership took part. As current ERC leader on the city council, however, he was the only candidate standing. Maragall's candidature will now also have to be submitted to an internal primary vote.

If Ernest Maragall overcomes that barrier, the brother of the former Olympic-era mayor Pasqual Maragall will return to the city council fourteen years later. The current Catalan foreign minister was a city councillor for the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) from 1995 to 2003 and was also one of the closest members of his brother's team when he was mayor of the city. Thus he is well acquainted with the workings of city hall.

Ernest Maragall was an historic leader of the PSC and was education minister in the tripartite Catalan government led by the Socialist José Montilla, but broke with the PSC as a result of the independence process and founded a new pro-independence grouping, until eventually joining the ERC lists as an independent in the European elections of 2014 and, this year, joining the party itself.

The possibility that Ernest Maragall might leave the Catalan government to become an ERC candidate for the Barcelona mayoralty began to emerge months ago within the party, and the idea has been gaining strength through internal polls on possible mayors, in which Maragall appeared to have options to win the elections.

ERC enters the election season with good standings in the polls and considers it could win the electoral race, either to govern on its own or through agreements with other candidates.

Gestures of support

ERC party president Oriol Junqueras expressed his support for Bosch's move and thanked him for his "generosity" in a tweet. Catalan vice president Pere Aragonés also gave a similar message on social media.