The anti-establishment militancy that characterized above all the ERC of the tripartites has disappeared. Since 2011, on four occasions the tandem Oriol Junqueras-Marta Rovira has presented a candidacy to lead the formation and in none of them has any rival presented itself. Today, both have been re-elected president and general secretary of the ERC without any opposition and with the support of 87% of the militancy, of which 50.2% have cast their vote (57 participated in the 2019 elections, two%). Thus, 4,309 associates have spoken, 3,747 of them in favor of the list. 562 have made it blank.
Junqueras has seen how he is being questioned more and more by other pro-independence entities and formations, but there are practically no swords raised internally, in Esquerra, or threats of a split. He has not had the need to unsheathe the "almost exact" replica sword of that of Jaume I, which in 2005 the Republican showed in a program to spread the history of Catalonia and in which he ended up breaking watermelons. He showed that in addition to history he knows how to mark the five basic positions to defend himself with the sword. He has not needed them to lead Esquerra at any time. (“And backtracking?” asks the host of the program, as a sixth maneuver to defend himself. “Backtracking, in bed,” joked the Republican timidly).
The party's national council has also been renewed. Josep Maria Jové has all the numbers to preside over it again.
With the renewal of their positions, Junqueras and Rovira are on their way to starring in the longest-serving leadership in ERC since the restoration of democracy. Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira held the general secretariat from 1996 to 2004. That last year he became president of the formation, a position that until then was only symbolic. He ceased to be the leading figure in the party in 2008. If Junqueras and Rovira serve the next four years in office, they will add 15 years, well above Carod-Rovira's 12. Only the leaders in exile and during the Franco regime of Josep Tarradellas (16 years old) and Joan Sauret (22 years old) would be above.
Oriol Junqueras and Marta Rovira will be accompanied by Pere Aragonès as national coordinator and Marta Vilalta as assistant general secretary. They repeat in their posts. With these elections, the ERC advances in its congressional process, which is expected to end at the end of January 2023, with the fine-tuning of the Republicans' strategy. In any case, the party has already renewed its political presentation in 2022, so it is intuited that the new text will be limited to providing some notes in a context in which Esquerra has been left alone in the Government. Something that had not been produced since the 30s of the last century. The continuity of ideas is evident even in the slogan of the candidacy of the Junqueras-Rovira tandem: “More republicanism, more freedom”. In their program, they insist on negotiation as a tool to resolve the political conflict.
Today ERC presides over the Generalitat hand in hand with Aragonès. In 2011, when Junqueras and Rovira occupied the leadership for the first time, Esquerra was the fifth force in the Parliament with ten deputies. The tripartites with the PSC and ICV-EUiA took their toll, with an internal crisis that was devastating. A fact: that year, Joaquim Nadal from the PSC and head of the opposition in the Parliament -now, recently incorporated into the Executive of Aragonès- and Carles Puigdemont, as city mayor.
Currently, the republican formation has 33 deputies in the Catalan Chamber, its maximum since the 1980 elections. But the Generalitat governs in a minority, after Junts left the Catalan Executive. ERC is facing a complicated stage, with part of the independence movement against its dialogue strategy. In addition, the party is awaiting a dejudicialization process that the Government of Pedro Sánchez demands if it wants it to facilitate the approval of the general state budgets. The crime of sedition is on the target. Embezzlement is another story, more difficult to tackle. It is the main accusation that weighs, for example, on Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó, considered architects of 1-O.
But the republicans also live with the viability of the Govern Aragonès in doubt. New budgets from the Generalitat are necessary. They hang by a thread and in all likelihood the president will be forced to accept the outstretched hand of a PSC that the ERC has repudiated time and again after the application of 155 in Catalonia.
Esquerra brought forward its congress to achieve maximum cohesion before the municipal elections of May 2023 and also avoid coinciding with the general elections, which are scheduled for the end of next year. The situation in the Parliament, with a minimum support of 33 deputies to the Government, does not allow him to address the situation with the calm that he would have liked.
In the top of the party will also be the deputy general secretaries Jordi Roig (resources, finance and management); Marc Colomer (communication and strategy); Raquel Sans (feminism and LGBTI); Adriana Hernández (institutional coordination); Lluís Salvadó (internal coordination); Marta Vilaret (rights, freedoms and anti-repressive struggle); Raül Romeva (prospect, agenda 2030 and ecological transition); Sara Bailac (political and sectoral action), and Jordi Solé (international relations).
As secretaries will be Eva Baró (knowledge management); Kènia Domènech (affiliation); Marta Molina (social movements); Oriol López (municipal mobilization and coordination); Pau Morales (organization); Alba Camps (municipal policy and transversal projects); Laia Cañigeral (supra-municipal policy coordination), and Marta Rosique (knowledge and global justice). In addition, they will be in the direction of the Jordi Castellana party (economic policy and sectoral coordination); Enric Marín (education and culture); Chakir El Homrani (work and security policy), and Agnès Rotger (social rights and citizenship).
With the new mandate of Junqueras and Rovira, four more years of mandate are opened. Statutorily it is possible. The party's internal regulations allow the numbers one and two of the party to be re-elected "uninterruptedly for up to a maximum of twelve years, although the mandate can always end." In addition, in 2019 a point was introduced that empowers them to extend their leadership when they “have not been able to fully carry out their functions as a result of causes beyond the organization and their will.” "This period will be suspended," says the text. Junqueras spent three years and seven months in prison; Rovira has been in Switzerland since March 2018.
