Surprise at the Catalan National Assembly (ANC). The emergence of a critical current inside Catalonia's leading pro-independence organization has exploded like a bomb among much of the leadership, which did not anticipate this announcement. It was nothing new that there was tension in the ANC: the extraordinary full meeting of the leadership on January 28th, in which the plan to present a non-party civic candidacy in the next parliamentary elections was put on the table, generated mutual reproaches between secretariat members for and against the proposal, and accusations of "authoritarianism" against president Dolors Feliu. In fact, the vote that day implied a defeat for the president, who failed to get support for a working group on the issue.
Since then, 11 days have gone by, but it has not been enough time to overcome the differences. In fact, this Wednesday saw the public launch of a new collective, under the name of Indesinenter, with a position markedly critical of the current ANC leadership. In its first statement, the group (made up of an undefined number of members of the national secretariat, but which refers to the 22 representatives who rejected the working group proposal) has warned that it has not yet been "possible to resolve the serious internal crisis", but is open to "leading it to a successful conclusion". TO that end, they have put a demand on the table: remodel the permanent committee, made up of 12 members and with an attitude marked by "centralization, authoritarianism and abuse of power". "It is the minimum necessary to avoid the blocking of our entity", they argue.
Critics aim to generate "mistrust", say opponents
But the appearance of this new critical current has not been well received by everyone. A member of the national secretariat with whom ElNacional.cat has spoken says that many of his colleagues at the top of the organization are "surprised". "They announced it today, we found out just a few hours ago," he explains. The Indesinenter collective has made itself known to the rest of the ANC members through an email that has been sent without names. "It's been a kind of anonymous grouping," he notes. Since the events took place this very morning, there has not yet been any specific reaction from the leadership, but in any case the intention will be to talk to those in this critical wing.
However, the same source asserts that currently within the organization "everything can be discussed", and rejects all the group's accusations towards the attitude of president Dolors Feliu and the permanent committee. In any case, this national secretary believes that the critics had already "thought over" the constitution of a current of internal opposition, and were only waiting for the right moment. The controversy generated around the civic list across the leadership of the ANC has been the ideal "pretext". Nor does he understand the demand to reshape the standing committee, since its members are chosen indirectly by the members of the national secretariat. "If they are a minority in one body, it is because they are also a minority in the other."
Behind the new strand, this member finds that there is clear "disloyalty" and "anti-democratic action" in the attempt by the critics to block the debate on the civic list. All this with a single objective: to generate "mistrust" towards the ANC and the option of the fourth candidacy for the elections, which at present is "one of the only proposals" to advance the independence process. "They want to create a climate of supposed division by putting up destructive opposition," he complains. However, this national secretary does not fear that the organization could end up splitting. "I don't see any rupture in the territorial grass roots", he says. "If they want to break us up, they will remain in the minority as they are now."