They have met in Switzerland. Exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, current president Quim Torra, as well as representatives of the three main Catalan pro-independence parties and the major civil groups have held a surprise summit meeting in Switzerland to rebuild their alliances, according to Catalunya Ràdio and TV3.
In an atmosphere of great secrecy, several sources consulted by ElNacional.cat declined to give any details of the meeting which were earlier broken by the digital newspaper La República.
The meeting, apparently held in Geneva, featured the presence of Puigdemont and Torra, along with members of pro-independence parties JxCat, ERC (with the exiled general secretary of the party, Marta Rovira, attending), and the CUP. The two major civil society groups, ANC and Òmnium, were also represented.
A summit of the pro-independence parties had been planned for July 26th, convened by Catalan exile body Council of the Republic, but recent events appeared to have caused it to be moved forward urgently: in particular, the crisis that has opened between the two parties that form the Catalan government, ERC and JxCat, following the agreement reached on Friday between the latter and their theoretical political enemies, the unionist Catalan Socialists (PSC), to govern Barcelona's provincial institution, the Diputació.
Over the last few hours, ERC has been warning its Catalan government partners that the pact in the provincial council, which will prevent ERC from assuming the presidency of the body, will "have consequences."
The situation has opened a schism in the Catalan executive and has unleashed a wave of criticism from the pro-independence civil groups for the politicians' failure to maintain a unified stance and, moreover, to enter into an accord with the PSC, part of the Article 155 block which voted for the repression of the independence movement in 2017 through Madrid's direct rule and through the ongoing judicialization of the issue.
Undo all agreements
Carles Puigdemont has avoided making any public comment on the controversial Diputació pact, which JxCat justifies by equating it to the agreements that ERC has made with the PSC in around thirty municipalities across Catalonia, blocking out JxCat - including those of relatively important cities such as Sant Cugat del Vallès and Figueres. However, the exiled president did retweet a suggestion from the JxCat spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Albert Batet, calling for the current pacts to be "undone" - in all cases where pro-independence parties have reached agreements with parties backing 155.
Em sembla una molt bona proposta, però si ho fem, fem-ho bé: revertim-ho a tot arreu. Som-hi? https://t.co/TzlItb6yoV
— Albert Batet🎗 (@albertbatet) July 5, 2019
Translation: "It seems to me a very good proposal, but if we do it, we need to do it well: we undo them everywhere. Shall we?"— Albert Batet