Francesc de Dalmases has given in to the pressure and will no longer have organic responsibilities in Junts per Catalunya after his incident with a TV3 journalist, but he will continue as an ordinary deputy in Parliament. Forced by the situation, he has resigned as vice-president of the party and as spokesman for JxCat in the control commission of the Catalan Chamber of Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA). In this way, the formation is trying to close a crisis that has been dragging on for months and that in these last days had been revived.
Although the events occurred on July 9, the decision was made this afternoon with an executive meeting underway, and comes after the internal investigation instructed by Magda Oranich has been completed. The report prepared by the lawyer, who is part of the Junts guarantee commission, concludes that her conduct was "incorrect" and that she "lost her nerve in an exaggerated way", for which the journalist felt "intimidated" . These events occurred after an interview with Laura Borràs on the FAQS program from which she did not come out well due to her legal case.
The resignation of the former leader deprives Borràs of one of his closest collaborators in the Junts leadership and affects his position. For the two vice-presidencies that corresponded to him in the distribution of power agreed with Jordi Turull, general secretary, the president of the formation had chosen Dalmases and Aurora Madaula.
Dalmases' situation has become more poisoned since Monday, after he himself sent a letter to the party's executive in which he discredited the work of Oranich – who has a recognized track record in defending women and had been a trustee of the partner of Barça– and of the guarantee commission. The lawyer denounced "unacceptable pressure" from the environment of the until now leader of JxCat and even from Borràs, and warned that there were more complaints from Junts deputies that she had not included in the report.
That aspect had been commented on when the crisis broke out in July, although then it did not go any further. However, it has come to light this afternoon at the executive meeting and two episodes similar to those suffered by the TV3 journalist have been explained.
In the interventions, according to various sources consulted, Borràs has defended one of his supporters since he entered institutional politics and has been confronted by other leaders of the institutional sector – who have come en bloc to the appointment – such as the former minister Jaume Giró or the former organization secretary, David Saldoni, among others, who have lamented that the handling of the matter affects the party, and it has been said that "it cannot continue like this". There have also been complaints about the fact that the internal issues of training are often talked about more than the problems that affect society.
After Oranich's writings and the reply of the former vice president of JxCat were revealed, some sectors of the party mobilized and urged Turull to call a meeting as soon as possible to tackle this new crisis, which once again stirred up the internal waters of the formation and evidence that there are two drives inside.
These sectors were willing to organize and act in case Dalmases had been successful or if he refused to resign. In fact, a collection of signatures had already begun to be organized for the matter to be dealt with at the next meeting of the national council, in November, and to demand that it leave the parliamentary record. It remains to be seen now whether or not that process goes ahead, since the will of the management was to close that folder today.
With these wicks, the executive meeting has been very tense and before the appointment started, some JxCat leaders admitted that the situation looked very bad and that it was difficult to find an arrangement that would make everyone happy, one of the formulas that It has been sought in Junts since Turull and Borràs are in charge.
These sources also pointed out that Dalmases himself had been aggravating the crisis with the decisions he has made in the last three months. "If he had kept quiet and apologized from the beginning and now again, maybe nothing would have happened," these sources speculate.
Dalmases did not participate in the meeting, which took place at the party's headquarters, as he was in the Sant Pau hospital due to an “anxiety crisis”, according to Borràs when he arrived at the meeting.
