The priority of the CUP, the smallest and farthest-left of the Catalan pro-independence parties, is that the pro-independence majority in the Catalan Parliament's Bureau is solid and able to guarantee that all the proposed initiatives can be debated in the chamber without censorship for fear of criminal consequences. Therefore, faced with the dilemma of having to choose between a member of En Comú Podem, the alternative left party which is not pro-independence, and a candidate from Carles Puigdemont's Junts to fill the vacancy left by Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, the CUP's choice is clear. The party's nine votes will be for Aurora Madaula, of Junts.
"This must be a legislature of confrontation and of making progress, where we can talk about everything and where the sovereignty of Parliament is above all, where the rights of prosecuted MPs like Lluís Puig are defended and where it confronts fascism." These are the priority objectives of the CUP which the party's representative on the Bureau, Pau Juvillà, listed in a press appearance this afternoon. The CUP believes that "the presence of En Común Podem cannot guarantee this."
"We will facilitate Aurora Madaula's election to the Bureau," he announced. However, the CUP does not hide its "concern" over the affair centred on Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, in which the lawyer and newly-elected Junts MP resigned his place on the Bureau because "it shows the lack of consensus within Junts regarding the role of confrontation in the Bureau during this legislature, an idea that we had discussed together". To clarify matters, the anti-capitalist party has asked for a meeting with Junts. The leftists consider that "it is necessary to sit down and talk to prevent the pro-independence majority from being symbolic".
However, the CUP deputies are distancing themselves from the plan of the largest pro-independence party, ERC, of tying the vote for the replacement of Cuevillas to support for the investiture of its presidential candidate Pere Aragonès.
ERC and Junts also return to the table
Straight after Juvillà's appearance, the two largest pro-independence groups, ERC and Junts, resumed negotiations to try and untangle the knots that are still preventing an agreement on the new Catalan government.
On the table is the announcement by Junts that if a deal does not come to fruition, it does not rule out situating itself in the opposition once Aragonès has been invested. ERC sources assert that this gesture is more of a tactical move than a real desire to stay out of the new Catalan government.
The CUP has also warned that if, as a result of this new negotiation with Junts, ERC decides to tweak the agreement it has already signed with the radical left party, the rank and file would again have to be consulted on whether to endorse the investiture of Aragonès. And the party is already saying that "it will be difficult for the CUP to support a modified agreement".
In the main image, members of the CUP parliamentary group. / ACN