An important movement in Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia). The president of the Catalan pro-independence party, Carles Puigdemont, announced this Tuesday morning that he has formally called the party's congress for June 4th and that he will not make a bid to renew his position at the head of the party. The congress has been convened just within the limit of one month established by the party's statutes and, according to the regulations passed this weekend by the party's members, the setting of the congress date starts the countdown clock for the presentation of leadership bids: thus, candidates now have six days to declare their pre-candidacies.
"It is now necessary, in my opinion, for the party to have a new presidency. One that will participate permanently in executive meetings, and will take part in the full depth of the political decisions that need to be made. For this reason I am not presenting my candidacy for the renewal of the party presidency", explains Puigdemont in the letter he has addressed to the Junts members.
With the announcement of his stepping aside, the exiled former Catalan president has resolved one of the main incognitos that remained around the Junts conference. In fact, Puigdemont had already repeatedly made known his decision to members of the party in private, and had even publicly signalled it in early March when he took over the presidency of the Council for the Republic, making it clear that his priority now was to govern the exile body and expressing a commitment to distance it from the parties.
Turull and Borràs
Following the announcement a month ago by the current general secretary of Junts, Jordi Sànchez, that he would not run for re-election in his role, all eyes have been on former government minister Jordi Turull and current speaker of the house, Laura Borràs. The two and their circles of support have been in contact in recent weeks to explore the possibility of a joint candidacy. However, those familiar with the talks, consulted by ElNacional.cat, say that no agreement has been reached so far as both aspire to occupy the general secretariat.
For now, Puigdemont's move resolves one of the main doubts that remained in these talks and confirms that both the general secretariat and the party presidency are vacant. The next question is what role the next president of Junts should play. Puigdemont, from exile, assumed a presidency without executive functions, and a distribution of roles between Turull and Borràs, would possibly force a reform of the regulation affecting the positions. In any case, this reform will have to be left for later as the congress on June 4th will only be to renew the party leadership. A second summit will be convened a month later to address political and organizational presentations, which should include any changes in the internal functioning.
Pre-candidacies in six days
For the time being, the Junts statutes state that the convening of the party congress is the responsibility of the president, which must be formalized by e-mail and with a minimum notice of 30 calendar days. Therefore, the announcement today by Puigdemont has been made right on the deadline for holding the congress on June 4th. If it had not been called today, the summit would have been held in July, since on the following weekends, those of June 12th and 19th, there are elections in France and the last weekend of the month is Sant Joan, a date that Junts has ruled out for its congress.
The regulations for the election of positions approved by the party's rules stipulate that, from the calling of the congress, a period of six days is opened to present pre-candidacies for the presidency of the party - with a candidate for the presidency and up to four vice presidents - and the national executive - with candidates for secretary general, secretary of organization and secretary of finance, as well as 18 names to complete the leadership. Today's announcement decides the whole calendar.