Toni Castellà, leader of Democrates de Catalunya, the pro-independence formation that is the successor to Unió Democràtica de Catalunya, has this week assumed the role of deputy of the Parliament and will replace Laura Borràs in the Junts per Catalunya group.
In a press conference with the president of JxCat, Castellà has assured that he will not only replace him but also "represent" him, as well as being the voice of his party, Demòcrates, and the Junts group. In addition, the new post-convergent deputy has stressed that he shares "the same pro-independence strategy" as Borràs and has indicated that it was not in his plans to be a deputy since he was focused on the Consell de la República, the Belgian-based sovereignist organization chaired by Carles Puigdemont in which he acts as spokesperson, and in his own party,
Castellà was a member of Unió from the 1990s until 2015, when it was filed and split from the UDC and founded together with other pro-independence leaders from Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida's party such as Núria de Gispert or Joan Rigol, grouped on the 'Hereus1931' platform , the democrates formation.
In the two previous legislatures he was already a deputy. In the Junts pel Sí group between 2015 and 2017 and in the Esquerra Republicana group as an independent from 2018 to 2020. Previously, from 1999 to 2011, he had been a parliamentarian for Convergència i Unió and a member of the Parliamentary Bureau. In addition, he was part of the sottogoverno in the executives of Artur Mas as general secretary of Universitats i Recerca.
For the 2021 parliamentary elections, Demòcrates sealed an agreement with Junts that Borràs and Castellà signed, and in the post-convergent group there is already a leader of Unió's sovereign heirs, Titon Laïlla, who was also part of Xavier Trias' candidacy in Barcelona. In the municipal elections last month there were also agreements between both parties.
Regarding the future president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, who will be elected tomorrow Friday by plenary with the votes in favor of Junts, Esquerra Republicana and with the abstention of the CUP, Castellà has indicated that it is a "good choice", and that Erra must "preserve the dignity of the institution," as well as its "sovereignty" and the pro-independence "parliamentary majority."
In fact, Castellà had sounded in recent days as one of the candidates that Borràs wanted to propose for the presidency of the Catalan Chamber. The environment of the president of Junts had expressed it this way and she herself in Catalunya Ràdio predicted a week ago that he will be a "magnificent deputy" and, therefore, that he would be a "magnificent president". However, this Thursday both have denied that extreme.
In the JxCat municipal campaign, Castellà has been at the opening and closing events of the Trias campaign and took part in the final meeting of the formation in Vic, with a remarkable speech in which he claimed that the post-convergent force is "the the only one" that embodies the spirit of Junts pel Sí and that continues to be "incorruptibly loyal to 1-O". Likewise, he called for "a great storm that will take away bad governments and resignations", attributes that he dedicated to ERC. “We have a political, historical, and ethical responsibility to lead a great counteroffensive in the national liberation process, out of respect for the people who voted for 1-O and defended the ballot box with their bodies, those who suffered reprisals, and those in exile,” he pointed out. Not surprisingly, one of the slogans coined by his formation is "loyal to 1-O" and they claim the unilateral path as the only way to materialize the independence of Catalonia.
