Laura Borràs and clean hands

The Borràs aura is not a gray policy.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
31 March 2023 Friday 23:14
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Laura Borràs and clean hands

The Borràs aura is not a gray policy. With her or against her. White or black. They were the colors of the president of Junts and her family as they advanced towards Parliament, and also – an unconscious dress code – of the party officials and deputies who accompanied her. With the sentence of 4 and a half years in prison and 13 years of disqualification diluting his aura, Borràs lost his tone, cried out to vindicate himself alive, even though his companions staged the closest thing to a political burial. The week at Junts has gone from "Welcome Clara Ponsatí" to chanting -inwards- L'hora dels adeus de Borràs. It won't be by your own decision. "No. I will not resign."

Borràs is once again straining the party when its future is at stake in the municipal elections. And he doesn't do it out of disaffection. Ponsatí style. The MEP is closer to a fourth independence space than Junts and she does not hide it. Even so, the scenography of his fleeting passage through Barcelona was agreed with Carles Puigdemont and the post-convergent management. The aim was to "confront" the strategy of Junts and that of ERC. Ponsatí, arrested by the police; and Meritxell Serret, tried the next day for disobedience after voluntarily appearing before the Supreme Court. ERC took refuge in discretion and smothered its discomfort with discipline: "They will not find us in the mud of the confrontation between pro-independence". With Borràs, things change. The proven facts of the sentence – falsehood and prevarication – are overwhelming for Junts and the flag of "repression" takes on an ambiguous meaning that allows it to attack the opponent.

Laura Borràs is "indignant with that independence that collaborates with the State from which it wants to become independent and which is very good at keeping its political rivals away". The president of Junts fires at ERC and even asks that she be reinstated, but within the executive of her party there are not a few or a minority who consider that she should step aside. The nuances come with the how: wait for the Electoral Board to do the job and send to Parliament the credentials of the deputy who should replace him (Antoni Castellà), or push for him to leave "alone" from Parliament and the presidency of the party: "It harms us", they certify.

That Borràs takes this step in the short term is a chimera. He flirts with disobedience, to turn Parliament into a private trench, with which allies? Jordi Turull, obsessed with decorating the post-convergent space, will not advance decisions and demands discretion. "Our evil does not want noise". Except if you are Magda Oranich and you remember, once again, in Borràs that the institutions are above you. But on Monday, in the planned executive meeting, the new scenario will be addressed without a remedy. The majority defends that, if the theory of "surrendered ineligibility" is used, Junts will propose a new candidate for the presidency of the Parliament. When Quim Torra demanded that the position be left vacant, an indignant comment circulated in Junts: "He replaced not one but three (!): Puigdemont, Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Turull." And he became president.

Turull will prevent Borràs from attributing to him having abandoned her. The president has been receiving money from the party since she was suspended from Parliament in the summer. The problem is to keep it as the authorized voice of Junts in the election campaign by dragging the condemnation from rally to rally.

Without decisions, the campaign gets complicated and the letter of exemplarity fades. Although Xavier Trias seems immune. His schedule is always busy if Borràs is the protagonist of the media chapter of the day. The mayor, who already showed him the door a few days ago, communicates his full support "to the path opened by resources". No political asylum. Neither Trias, nor ex-councillors, nor visiting mayors accompanied Borràs to the doors of the Parliament.

The indignation of Borràs and the impasse in Junts is a balm for ERC. The sentence facilitates the republican argument. Fèlix Millet is dead, but the "clean hands" that walked through Catalonia uniting the 3% and CDC are still valid with a new version: "The facts are very serious and have nothing to do with repression" (Pere Aragonès), "It is proven that there is a crime of corruption, if he was from ERC he would have resigned" ( Marta Vilalta ). The pro-independence majority vanished in the Borràs case. ERC is waiting for Turull's next step to know if he will return and for what.