CUP's number one Antonio Baños quits

Barcelona (CNA).- Radical left pro-independence CUP’s number one and MP Antonio Baños has resigned from office. “I couldn’t or I didn’t know how to fulfil the [27-S Catalan Elections’] mandate and therefore I quit” stated Baños in a letter published this Monday. Baños also admitted to being “unable to defend the majoritarian position” taken by CUP’s Political Board and Parliamentary Action Group on Sunday as it is “contrary to the ideas and goals for which I decided to run for the 27-S elections”. “I was amongst those who supported ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal and was willing to invest its candidate” he stated. Baños’ decision comes after CUP’s rejection of Mas’ candidature after three months of negotiations with cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ over launching an agreed roadmap towards independence. 

“This decision corresponds to strictly political reasons” stated Baños in his letter. “I quit because I feel unable to defend the majoritarian position adopted [by CUP’s Political Board and Parliamentary Action Group on Sunday]” he admitted and described CUP’s ultimate veto against Artur Mas as “politically divergent to the ideas and goals for which I decided to run for candidate in the 27-S elections”. According to Baños, his decision to go into politics aimed to turn this term of office into “that of the irreversible break with the Spanish State”. “After obtaining a pro-independence majority in the 27-S elections, I assumed that the country’s explicit mandate was to start, without further delays nor doubts, the breaking with the Spanish State” emphasised Baños and admitted that “for this reason, I was amongst those who supported ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal and was willing to invest its candidate”. “It is clear that I couldn’t or I didn’t know how to fulfil this mandate and therefore I quit”.

Although Baños admitted to feeling deeply “frustrated”, he stated his conviction that “the Catalan Republic is the only way to reach the social transformation of the country” and called for the continuation of work to “enhance the social basis” of the pro-independence movement.