The scenography of the event that Carles Puigdemont starred in yesterday left no room for doubt. A giant blue canvas with the words “President Carles Puigdemont”, without a party logo, was the backdrop of the former president's conference in Elna (France) in which he confirmed that he will be the Junts candidate in the elections to the Parliament of 12 of May; and that he will put his all into this contest: he renounces the European battle and promises that he will return if he has a majority to be invested, although he does not have all the legal guarantees in his bag.
“If I am a candidate for the investiture, I will leave exile permanently to attend personally,” said the former president, who made it a condition for his return that he have a sufficient majority to be invested.
Thus, the post-convergent leader will not be the candidate in the European elections on June 9, a movement that shows faith and confidence that the final approval of the Amnesty law in a few weeks will be a turning point and will change the legal horizon of those prosecuted by the process. “So that no one has any doubt and no one speculates, I have decided to resign from being part of the list for the elections to the European Parliament,” Puigdemont said just after announcing that he aspires to the presidency of the Generalitat. “Let it be clear that this [the 12-M elections] is my priority,” he added. “I'm going for it,” he said at the end.
By not repeating as an MEP, Puigdemont will lose prerogatives such as legal immunity, which in recent years has allowed him to move around Europe despite the arrest and surrender orders issued by the Supreme Court.
Thus, 30 kilometers from the border, in a total campaign atmosphere, with a meticulous staging and a thousand people – 1,400 according to the party – among those who filled the assembly hall of the Elna Town Hall and the who gathered in an annex outside, Puigdemont starred in the first major act of the post-convergents.
If there is an idea that he wanted to highlight and that will be developed in the coming days, it was to ask for the “restitution” of the president who in October 2017, after the application of 155, went to Belgium. He noted that the circle can now be closed and that “the opportunity to make restitution possible is open.” “I propose my candidacy for restitution to the presidency of the Generalitat,” he highlighted. “Good government and restitution at the service of the citizens,” he promised before putting on the table the possibility of a unitary list with the rest of the pro-independence formations, although today that may be “preaching in the desert” and the other formations have already unchecked.
“My candidacy will have to go beyond what my party is, it is already a bit of the tradition of the house. We will incorporate profiles from other sectors,” she stated. “The party is a tool, not a purpose,” she concluded.
Likewise, he combined an independence speech and the commitment to a self-determination referendum with economic issues – an aspect that will be central during the campaign along with the sovereignty demands – and issues related to the management of self-government, for which he asked for leadership. In that last section, after breaking down the figures of the fiscal deficit and the low economic performance of the State in Catalonia, the leader, the only protagonist of the rally, made reference to a “premeditated asphyxiation” and the competition with Madrid for “economic dynamism.” a reference to Ramon Trias Fargas.
In his speech there were attacks on ERC for its management and the result of its negotiating strategy, while he vindicated the agreement that Junts sealed with the PSOE in Brussels for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. In that sense, he outlined some milestones such as the actions to make Catalan official in Europe. “We have dragged the State to the position that we had always defended,” he noted. While the President of the Government, for his part, downplayed Puigdemont's candidacy. “He already performed in 2017 and 2021,” he said.
