Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) has decided to postpone the special congress of its Barcelona federation scheduled for this Thursday evening, at which the grassroots membership were to give their view on whether the party should enter the Barcelona city government of Catalan Socialist (PSC) mayor Jaume Collboni. The huge turnout of Republican members exceeded the organization's forecasts, and given the impossibility of fitting all those who arrived in the venue, the party decided to postpone the vote to a new date, although it has not yet specified when that will be. "The attendance exceeds the capacity of the planned venue and it is necessary to guarantee the rights of all members to take part in this congressional process", said ERC in a short statement, in which it informed that "the organizing committee will look for a new location". The auditorium of the Orfeó Martinenc, the space where the event was to be held, has a capacity of 270 people, while the number of ERC members in Barcelona is around a thousand.
ERC members arrived divided at the consultation, at which they had to endorse or reject the government pre-accord signed between the ERC and the PSC this Tuesday, under which the Republicans would enter Collboni's city executive, which for almost a year has governed as a minority administration. This Thursday afternoon, when there was still an hour left till the start of the congress, hundreds of party members were already queuing to enter the hall. Sources from ERC Barcelona explained to ElNacional.cat that they expected some mobilization, but not as much as there was in the end. In fact, they recognized that there has been significant mobilization of 'no' voters, who may consider that entering a PSC government could harm the party in a possible repeat Catalan election, which if it happened would be likely in October. In fact, voices critical of the party's entry into Collboni's council saw this rapid call for a congress as a way to avoid high voter turnout, although the result has been the opposite.
Now, another date will have to be chosen for the congress, in a space with much more capacity. On the horizon is another day marked in red on the calendar: June 25th, when the Catalan Parliament is to hold its first investiture plenum to elect a new president of the Generalitat; in the event that there is no candidate, there will be an "equivalent act" to formally start the two-month countdown for a president to be chosen. ERC national leadership was nervously awaiting the vote that didn't end up going ahead, fearing that the result might affect the investiture negotiations, in which ERC plays a key role. The question now is whether the new date chosen will be before or after the parliamentary plenum.
Changes in PSC calendar
The postponement of the ERC congress and, therefore, of the decision on whether or not to enter Jaume Collboni's municipal government also alters the Socialists' calendar. In the event that this Thursday ERC members had approved their party's entry into the council, the PSC would have called a consultation with its own grassroots on Saturday to ratify the pact. The postponement of the congress due to the high number of members who turned out to have their say at the Orfeó Martinenc has also caused a delay in this Socialist consultation.
A controversial decision
The pre-accord on governing jointly, reached between ERC and the PSC was not well received by all sectors of the party. The president of Esquerra's Barcelona federation, Eva Baró, defended the agreement with the PSC on Wednesday, assuring that being a part of the government is important for the pro-independence project. "We need a sovereignist party in municipal government even if it doesn't hold the mayoral office," she said. However, the party's national leadership has an uneasy attitude toward the vote, fearing that the result could affect the negotiations for the investiture of a new Catalan government.
In this regard, ERC leadership had warned, prior to this afternoon's suspension of the congress, that it reserved the ability to make its own assessment of the result of the internal consultation, and to evaluate its execution, noting that a careful reading of the result was necessary, without ruling out a move to slow down the Barcelona City Council deal if the endorsement was achieved by a narrow margin. As well, the possibility of ERC national leadership overturning the decision of the members could have effects on the party's Barcelona federation, including resignations. It's been less than a year since this federation held elections, at which the candidacy of Eva Baró prevailed, with the support of the party leadership, although by a very small margin of votes.