Esquerra believes that he has found a weak point in Junts from which to extract juice. The post-convergents have practically mortgaged their national project to a municipal candidacy like that of Xavier Trias, their mayor for Barcelona, who, in addition to relegating the name of the party, according to the Republicans, eludes independence. So yesterday, in the central act of the ERC campaign, in Cornellà de Llobregat, Oriol Junqueras kicked that Achilles heel several times. The most painful, perhaps, was the following: "Only we preserve the idea of independence, (...), only we force them [Junts and before the CDC] to move and say that they are also independentistas, although their boss of ranks in Barcelona say that Convergència has returned”.
Or this: "Any vote for independence that does not go to ERC in the metropolitan area is a wasted vote and endorses the regime most contrary to the hope of the people of this country." Another: "Everyone knows that we will be the ones who will put up the ballot box again to achieve independence."
The fact is that the national axis, in this campaign for the municipal elections on May 28, had barely even shown its head. At least as a common thread. That independence is cheap is demonstrated by a very concrete fact: the ANC is in full general assembly to renew its roadmap and the media echo is negligible compared to previous years.
There are no stelades in the main acts of the ERC campaign. But yesterday, in Cornellà, the first cries of independence were heard and in the formation they consider that if the weakness of the PSC lies in the management of its minister of Rodalies, in Junts it lies in the theoretical abandonment of the objective of independence by the Trias candidacy, in whom Junts seems to have mortgaged his project.
Yesterday, Trias, in a campaign event in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona, made some statements that in ERC were seen as tangible proof of "the return" of Junts to CDC. "They say that this is from Convergència, then get upset if it is from Convergència!" Said the mayor to those who criticize him for seeking a pact with the PSC.
Faced with this attitude, Oriol Junqueras maintained yesterday that Ernest Maragall, mayor of ERC in Barcelona, "wants to save the capital of this country from those who only show up to save their party, their regime."
“A referendum and independence is easier to do if we have the big cities of the country in favor. That is why we want to win in Barcelona, l'Hospitalet, Sabadell, Terrassa, Badalona", the leader of the republicans made clear.
Precisely yesterday Maragall gave his most intense and poignant speech. He criticized Trias and urged him "not to be an accomplice to socio-vergence, with the support of the PP included", while appealing to pro-independence voters to concentrate their vote on ERC to "liberate" the city.
“Mr. Trias will not win the elections; The only result that he has had is to get Mrs. Colau out of her rejection and loneliness and to revive her again, ”argued the Republican candidate, annoyed by the role of the post-convergent.
However, the target of Maragall's attacks was to a greater extent the PSC. From Cornellà, from “the capital of socialist Catalonia, the cave of the wolf” – the PSC governs there with an absolute majority –, he denounced “the branch and conservative drift” of his previous party.
Maragall went further. He exposed that Catalan socialism "is Spanishized" and accused him of wanting "the mayor's office of Barcelona to add to the submission and total obedience of the State and submit it to the PSOE." “Today the risk is called [Jaume] Collboni,” he said of the PSC candidate for Barcelona.
Also present at the event was Pere Aragonès, who, along the lines of Oriol Junqueras, erected ERC as the recipient of the pro-independence “useful vote”. The president had both for the socialists and for JxCat. He accused them of immobilizing and of forging conservative alliances to prevent Republican governments.
The same was done by Gabriel Rufián, mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet. He added fuel to the fire by asking the socialist voter to vote for ERC this time because "it is more Catalan than anyone else", and the Junts voter to vote for the Republicans "because they are more pro-independence than anyone else".
Marta Rovira, general secretary of Esquerra, intervened from Geneva to touch the crest of the PSC. He said of Salvador Illa's party that "they are beginning to tremble" over the possible gain of votes for the Republicans in the metropolitan area. "Until today, the socialists of the red belt slept quite peacefully, misgoverned and began to prepare their political career to end up in a ministry," she said, especially in reference to Raquel Sánchez, Minister of Transportation.
"Balmón, Parlón: Ticktock, ticktock", finished Rufián referring to the socialist mayors of Cornellà and Santa Coloma while outside the Ustec precinct he called for the resignation of the Minister of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray.
