The candidacy of former president Carles Puigdemont for the presidency of the Generalitat in the parliamentary elections on May 12 has several similarities with that of Xavier Trias in the municipal elections of May last year. Not only because of the formula used to name the candidacy, which is similar – Trias per Barcelona, then, now Puigdemont per Catalunya –, or because the headquarters in Barcelona, after a change of image, is the same.
As happened a year ago with the former Convergent mayor, a manifesto of support for the candidacy of the former Catalan president, President Puigdemont, leader of independent Catalonia, has come to light. It highlights that Puigdemont is the most "recognized" person among the defenders of "the cause of the liberation of the Catalan nation" and calls for "joining efforts to return with more strength and intelligence to the path taken [in 2017] and finish it." It is also highlighted that he is a person now recognized internationally.
It is also noted that "Catalan has to be the language itself and a link of cohesion, in the midst of other great challenges of globalization and the climate emergency that must be addressed urgently."
The text, published on a web page, can be adhered to by whoever wants to and it has the rubric in the first places with ex-members of other political formations and people from civil society such as the cartoonist Pilarín Bayés; the publisher Isabel Martí; the actor Toni Alba; the writer Albert Sánchez Piñol; the rapper Josep Miquel Arenas (Valtonyc), who coincided with Puigdemont in Belgium for a season; the journalist Carles Porta, friend of the ex-president; the former director of the Center for Opinion Studies Jordi Argelaguet; the former president of the Chamber of Barcelona, Mònica Roca; activist Uma Alcaide; the anthropologist Eudald Carbonell; the lawyer Jordi Cabré - who has just published a book with his uncle, Xavier Trias -; the sociologist Cardús; the cook Ada Perellada; the writer and poet Àlex Susanna; and the editor and writer Iolanda Batallé, director of the Ona bookstore, among others.
The former leader of Esquerra Ángel Colom, who once joined Convergència, joined JxCat and directed the Fundació Nous Catalans, has also stamped his signature; the ex-deputy of the CUP and writer Julià de Jòdar; Jaume Sobrequés and Pere Ayguadé, who come from the PSC; o Bernat Joan and Jaume Rodri, who come from ERC; the ex-deputy of ICV Carme Garcia, who collaborates with the ex-president in the Council of the Republic, and Jaume Nualart, who also comes from the ecosocialist ranks; or the ex-deputy of Catalan Solidarity for Independence, Toni Strubell.
Some of the signatories of the manifesto that supports Puigdemont before the May 12 elections, such as Bayés, Parellada, Susanna or Batallé, also signed Trias's manifesto a year ago.
