Pere Aragonès, acting president of Catalonia, has announced this Monday morning that he is stepping down as an MP. He makes the announcement the day after the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) candidature that he led suffered its worst electoral defeat since 2010 in Sundays' Catalan parliamentary election, losing almost 200,000 votes and falling from 33 to just 20 deputies in the Catalan chamber. Aragonès has also said that he is leaving the political front line.
Minutes after the resounding defeat of the Republicans in the election, Aragonès recognized that his party's results were very poor and he affirmed that after analyzing them, both individual and collective responsibilities would have to be assumed. It was expected that this Monday party president Oriol Junqueras would appear in a press conference, but in the end it was Aragonès who stepped out in front of the media at ERC headquarters. Junqueras, who has not yet spoken about the Republican defeat or Aragonès's decision, was among the ERC representatives present at the press conference, along with other party officials, such as the number three Josep Maria Jové, and the candidates for Lleida and Tarragona and party spokespeople, Marta Vilalta and Raquel Sans.
ERC, to the opposition
Taking the same line as he did on Sunday night at Barcelona's Estació del Nord, where ERC followed the election results, Aragonès affirmed that his party will go over to the opposition, even though he also assured that the 20 Republican Left deputies will not be "an element of blockage". The ball, he said, is now in the court of the candidatures of Together for Catalonia (Junts) and the Catalan Socialists (PSC), whose "very good results" were recognized by the acting Catalan president. "It is up to them to form a government. We have assumed the decision of the Catalan public, who have told is that we have to go into opposition. It will be the PSC and Junts who have to reach an understanding and work out how to manage this situation".
Aragonès thus reiterated that after his party's clear defeat, the role that ERC has to assume is that of an opposition party and that those parties who are its rivals and formed opposition to its government during the last few years are the ones who have to reach an agreement. Accordingly, he made it clear that the Republicans will not facilitate "the formation of a PSC government" nor will they take part in operations that require agreements with Junts and the Socialists. If these two parties eventually reach an accord, they would have a total of 78 MPs in Parliament, in which case the ERC deputies would be irrelevant. On the same day as he has announced that he is leaving active politics and personally assuming inidividual responsibilities for this defeat, Aragonès rejected the possibility of his party forming part of a tripartite government with the PSC and Comuns Sumar, one of the governability options that the election result has left arithmetically viable. Neither did he say whether he thought the party should call a national congress. The last one was held at the beginning of 2023 and they are normally held every two years.
Proud of his government and party
Even today, the acting president of the Generalitat expressed his pride in the work done by his government, as he has reiterated throughout the campaign, convinced that in a few years and with the benefit of perspective, it will be more appreciated than it was at the May 12th election, when Catalan voters turned their backs on it. He also asserted that he reaffirms "more than ever" his belief in the party, whose youth division he first joined as a teenager: "I've been a member of Esquerra for more than half my life. I feel fully identified with this project, which it has never been deserted. Today I am trying to be worthy of its 93 years of history", he concluded.
Shows of support
The announcement by Pere Aragonès, not only that he is giving up his place as an MP in the new parliament but that he is leaving active politics at the age of just 41, has caused an avalanche of reactions on social media from his party colleagues. Raquel Sans, spokesperson and candidate for Tarragona, praised his decision: "No, not all politicians are the same. Honesty, shared leadership, the collective, and the country above individuals. Keeping one's word and commitment. Assumption of responsibilities. Thank you president!" "Responsibility and honesty. Time will show the value of the great work done. Thank you for everything, president," wrote the mayor of Cardona, Ferran Estruch, who lost his seat in Parliament.
Joan Ignasi Elena, who did manage to be elected as a deputy since he was in a leading position on the list, also had words of support for Aragonès: "It has been worth it and it will continue to be. Thank you, president, for your leadership in extremely difficult times. I'm with you, now and always! Long live Catalonia!" Neither Oriol Junqueras nor Marta Rovira have for the moment written any message on social media.