The new Catalan parliamentarians of Junts are starting to activate. Carles Puigdemont has summoned the 35 deputies of his Junts+ Puigdemont for Catalonia candidature to Northern Catalonia (France) this Thursday for what will be the first meeting of the new group of MPs that emerged from Sunday's election. With the new deputies, it is planned that the leadership of the party will also attend the meeting, with the president, Laura Borràs, and the general secretary, Jordi Turull, at the helm. The meeting, which according to party sources, could be held in Perpinyà, will be used to define Junts's strategy in the face of the new political scenario drawn by the elections results.
Puigdemont already made it clear on election night itself that, despite the fact that the Socialists (PSC) managed to position themselves on Sunday as the party with most votes and most deputies (42), he has no intention of throwing in the towel. The head of the Junts list affirmed that he will present his candidacy for the presidency of the Generalitat and that he had already started contacts to build a majority that would allow the investiture to go ahead. The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia must be elected on the first ballot by an absolute majority (at least 68 votes in favour), but on the second ballot a simple majority - more votes in favour than against - is sufficient.
Possible majorities
In this scenario, the Junts candidate would have to seek the support of the other major pro-independence party the Republican Left (ERC), which on Sunday obtained 20 deputies, as well as the four deputies of the far-left CUP, which would collectively add up to 59 deputies. But this proposal would also require the abstention of the PSC to counter the votes against of the PP (15), Vox (11) and Comuns (6). For his part, the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, knows he could have the support of his own 42 deputies and the 6 of the alternative left Comuns, and he would need the 20 deputies of ERC to achieve an absolute majority, unless he closes an agreement, which at present appears more unlikely, with Comuns, the People's Party (PP) and far-right Vox.
The decision by ERC will therefore be key in deciding the name of the future president. The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, assured this Tuesday in a letter to members after the electoral defeat caused by the loss of 13 deputies, that his party has understood the message that the public have given, that they "do not have confidence" in ERC or in its proposals or in its way of acting or explaining itself.
ERC's views
Junqueras states in his letter that ERC stands up as an alternative against those who want Catalonia to be just autonomous community or against "those who think that Catalonia can be governed from Madrid and at the mercy of a Spanish prime minister's will". The leader of the Republicans warns that they do not want to "build castles in the air" that cause paralysis and "generate more wear and tear and frustration". "We are not selling snake oil and we are clear about our objective", he affirms.
The constitution of the new Catalan Parliament will be the first thermometer on the positioning of Junqueras's party. Parliament has 20 days until it must be constituted, with the election of the speaker and the members of its procedural Bureau. This deadline ends on June 10th, the day after the European elections. However, Junts is committed, according to party sources, to not exhaust the time available. Once the different parliamentary groups have reached agreement, the calling together of the constituent assembly will have to be decreed by the outgoing Bureau, which is chaired by Anna Erra of Junts, and has a pro-independence majority.