Regarding independence, during this campaign there has practically been a walkout. It has been a hidden input. Until today. "Any pro-independence vote that does not go to ERC in the metropolitan area is a wasted vote and that supports the regime most contrary to the hope of the people of this country." After a campaign that Esquerra wanted to focus on reproaching the PSC for Rodalies or criticizing Junts for its alleged pacts in advance with the Socialists, this Friday the president of the Republicans, Oriol Junqueras, has diverted the shot to relaunch and to exploit the independence message before a Junts and before a Xavier Trias who, according to what the leader of Esquerra has verified, says that "Convergència has returned".
The president of ERC has made this statement at the central campaign event of his party in Cornellà de Llobregat, where the Republicans aspire to continue climbing in votes against a PSC that leads the metropolitan area. Junqueras's is a direct attack on JxCat that matches the statements of Pere Aragonès, who has erected his party as "the useful vote". In addition, it was at the end of the speech by the president of the Generalitat when cries of "independence" were heard, the first in the main circuit of the Esquerra campaign.
For Junqueras, only his party "has preserved the idea of independence" before a Junts, and previously before Convergència and the PDECat, whom Esquerra, as he has said, "forced to move and say that they are also independentistas", in a clear reference to the beginnings of the process. A few years in which the Republicans, together with Artur Mas, carried out a consultation, and then a referendum under the mandate of Carles Puigdemont.
The president of ERC has taken it for granted that Junts counts for little in the pro-independence axis. He is in sight, in his opinion, with the Trias operation in Barcelona. The candidate stated a few days ago that "the mayor of Barcelona does not go out on the balcony to shout independence." A few words that have been eloquent enough, along with other statements, for Junqueras to maintain that Ernest Maragall, mayor of ERC in Barcelona, "wants to save the capital of this country in front of those who only show up to save their party, their regime".
ERC has claimed responsibility for organizing 1-O on several occasions. This Friday Junqueras has done it again, indirectly: "Everyone knows that when the polls are put back to make independence we will be able to do it." That Junqueras has expressed himself like this in Cornellà is not by chance. It is a scenario in which the Republicans aspire to accumulate more votes than those obtained in 2019 and where, in Junqueras's opinion, it is vital to do so in order to, in addition to advancing towards social justice, also towards sovereignty. "To hold a referendum and independence it is very easy to do it 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", he stressed by way of example.
Esquerra had arrived this Saturday at the central act of the campaign with the script somewhat changed. He put the PSC in the crosshairs, but soon deflected the shot to also fire at Junts. The Republicans believe that socialists and post-convergents go with pacts and a political map is beginning to take shape where both go with pacts already made under their arms.
