Oriol Junqueras (Barcelona, 1969) believes that apart from the Amnesty law, which this week has been approved by the Justice Commission, and which means that the phase of judicial persecution is over, it is time "to look to the future" to solve the urgent problems of farming, drought, workers, families...
Together has endangered the amnesty?
What is most important of all is that the amnesty is applied. We must overcome the phase of judicial persecution against the will of Catalan society. We are dealing with a law that is not the end point of politics, but is the starting point of politics. In any case, it is the final point of the judicial persecution against politics and the beginning of how politics restores the justice that some Spanish courts have damaged.
With the amnesty already about to be approved, is the process over?
Nothing ends that the people of Catalonia want. I am convinced that Catalan society, to a large extent, wants fullness in economic, social and political terms, and the future of Catalonia will be better nowhere than in the vote that Catalan society casts in a referendum on self-determination, on the independence of Catalonia.
What role do you expect the judiciary to play now?
The facts allow us to intuit that there will most likely be a part of the Spanish judiciary that will continue to invent a crime of rebellion that did not exist, inventing a crime of sedition that did not exist either, condemning a series of people to march to the exile They have had no trouble twisting the interpretation of the law and will try to continue to do so.
What is the difference between the law rejected on January 30 and the one that was approved last Thursday?
The main difference is that we lost a couple of months.
What do you think of Carles Puigdemont talking about starting a new stage now, of focusing efforts on independence?
We proposed the amnesty more than four years ago. We are very proud to have often done it alone. And we are proud that so many other political parties have ended up assuming as their own this agenda that was and is ours. We are very happy that, for example, Salvador Illa, who said "no amnesty or anything like that" now sees his colleagues in Congress voting for what he said would never happen. Therefore, we are very happy that there are many people who agree with us.
Among them too Together?
The PSOE, Junts and many others, yes, yes. I insist that we are very proud to have contributed to bringing justice where there was injustice and that those who did not want it, now want to attribute it to themselves. It doesn't bother us at all, on the contrary.
Would they work together with Junts to make more opposition to the Spanish Government?
Yes. In fact, we have always defended the broad way, the more we are, the better.
Should the way be the understanding that ERC and Junts have shown this week to push the amnesty forward?
We understand each other, otherwise we would not have agreed, not only in this last vote, but also in the previous vote in the Justice Committee. We vote the same in 85% of the votes in Congress, and probably in more than 90% of the votes in the European Parliament.
They agree with Junts, a party they have accused of holding postulates similar to those of the extreme right...
We want to agree with many people in the defense of the country, companies, schools, families... We are happy to agree in some aspects with Junts, with the communes, with the CUP and with the PSC. It is clear that there are aspects with which we do not agree. For example, if someone says: multi-recidivists should be expelled because they are foreigners... we are not concerned that they are foreigners. We are concerned about multiple recidivism because the problem is crime...
Are Marta Rovira and Carles Puigdemont closer to returning?
We have worked to make this return as soon as possible, but we know that there is a part of the court system that will do everything possible to delay it.
The commons say that they will not facilitate the budgets if the PDU of the Hard Rock is not knocked down.
A PDU is not voted. Everyone should vote for these budgets because everyone should want more resources to fight the drought, to help our farmers, universities and hospitals.
What do you think of Hard Rock?
The game is not an economic model that we want to promote. The project was launched when we were not yet in government and when there was a very relevant economic crisis. When we came to government we resized it drastically and went from six macrocasinos to a single and not very large one. Now, the context has changed. But the procedures must be continued and, therefore, who will define whether this is sustainable or not is the environmental reports.
Can budgets be approved together?
They can be approved with Junts, the CUP, communes, with the socialists and with the unions and with the employers and with the table of the third sector and with the universities. What is worrying is that those who say they want to represent society vote against what society is asking, which is to vote in favor.
But the common ones are the closest. Will there be a call to Yolanda Díaz?
There is no need to say whether we have called this particular person or that other one from beyond. I think it does not contribute to anything being approved.
If there are no Catalan budgets, are there no State budgets? are they tied
Like everything in life, everything is connected and nothing is connected. But if you ask if they are tied in the sense that we want everything to go well, the answer is yes.
Expand, transform or modernize El Prat airport?
improve it
You have not used any of the suggested words. And some are from the Government...
We should be able, the Spanish Government and Aena, to do what it is already committed to do, which is the satellite terminal. Stop making excuses. That they stop discriminating against El Prat, that they be transparent, that they publish the data on the resources it generates and how many of these are reinvested in Catalan airports. El Prat airport already has a runway that is longer than the runway they supposedly want to extend. Therefore, perhaps we should also consider how to use this track that already exists.
Is the Government late with the measures against the drought?
This drought is more than twice as long as the last major drought this country suffered. And despite having lasted more than twice as long, the restrictive measures have been delayed until now. It means that many things have been done. Otherwise, we would have gone into restriction a year and a half ago. Certainly more must be done. And to do them we need a lot of resources that we don't have. They refuse us.
It seems that until the farmers have taken to the streets they have not paid attention to them. A year ago Parliament urged the Government to debureaucratize the procedures.
Farmers have every reason to be worried. The cry for help and indignation they express is perfectly understandable. I feel proud, for example, that we have always voted in the European Parliament against those commercial agreements in third countries that harmed our farmers. And we have done this very often alone. There is an excess of bureaucratization, which is partly born in Brussels, yes, but also from the Spanish State. We must accompany them in the fight against the drought. And the Government of Catalonia is the only one that has given aid against the drought.
Would the government agree with the PSC after the Catalan elections?
We want to win the elections and, if possible, govern with an ERC-only government, as in this legislature. We don't want to depend on parties that block budgets, singular funding or a referendum.
