An unexpected turnaround. Oriol Junqueras is to leave the presidency of the Catalan Republican Left party after the European elections on June 9th. Junqueras, who has held this position at the head of the pro-independence party since 2011, will thus begin a period of "active listening reflection" before deciding on his future, according to an announcement made by the party after a four-hour extraordinary meeting of its executive, called after its disastrous results in Catalonia's parliamentary election last Sunday. The Republicans have also announced the calling of an extraordinary National Congress to be held on November 30th to "set the new strategy and look for the best way to regain the confidence of the country" after their major losses in the May 12th election.
The decision by Junqueras is a 180-degree turnaround from his own words expressed one day previously, in a letter addressed to the general public affirming that he felt strong enough to continue at the head of the party, and in turn had followed the announcement on Monday by Pere Aragonès, president of the ERC-led Catalan government, that he was leaving the political front line. Junqueras's letter, coming just 24 hours after Aragonès had announced his decision to leave in response to the disastrous results for his party, was not to the liking of everyone in the party. The meeting of the ERC executive was expected to last two hours and ended up lasting over twice as long.
Oriol Junqueras, president of ERC since 2011, former deputy Catalan president and one of the leading political figures in the Catalan pro-independence movement, who spent over 3 years in prison for his role in the independence process before being partially pardoned, will hold a press conference on Thursday at 9am to explain his decision.
Rovira will not apply to continue in her position
While Junqueras will leave the party presidency to begin a "period of reflection", thus leaving the door open to return in the special congress on November 30th, the same is not true for the party's general secretary Marta Rovira. Rovira has closed off this possibility, and in a long letter published on social media, she announces that "to be coherent" she has informed the party leadership that she will not seek to repeat the position she has held since 2018 in Swiss exile.