Green light for unitary pro-independence electoral list with politicians and independents

Barcelona (ACN).- The main civil society organisations supporting independence have backed the creation of a single unitary list among the main forces aiming to transform the next Catalan Parliament elections, scheduled for 27 September, into a 'de facto' plebiscite on independence. After months of discussions and public disagreements, there is finally a wide consensus build around the Liberal party CDC – which runs the Catalan Government – and the Social-Democrat ERC – which has been providing parliamentary support to the Executive since 2012. The CDC and ERC reached a shared stance on the list on Monday night. Even if the agreement does not include all the pro-independence parties, it is backed by a wide majority of them, ranging from Socialists to Christian-democrats and including Liberals. The main party missing is the alternative left and radical independence party CUP, which proposed running with a unitary list formed only by civil society members and therefore excluding active politicians and parties. The CUP announced on Tuesday that they will run on their own as they feel the CDC-ERC's proposal does not reflect "all the plurality" of the pro-independence camp. The unitary list will be headed by an independent but will ultimately include active politicians – such as the current Catalan President, Artur Mas – as well as many members from of civil society. The boards of the parties and organisations backing the list are meeting on Tuesday evening to approve it and no surprises are expected. In fact, at the time of writing, the board of the CDC had already ratified the agreement. However, no public statements will be made by any of the organisations tonight, as was announced earlier. It is expected that the details of the definitive agreement will be presented in a joint event on Wednesday or Thursday.

The main pro-independence list will be topped by an independent figure, who should be widely respected and elected by consensus. In the coming hours or days, his or her name will be announced. However, this person will not be elected President of the Catalan Government should this list win the elections and obtain enough parliamentary support. The agreement foresees that the current Catalan President and CDC leader, Artur Mas, would be re-elected as President. According to the most recent polls, if parties were running separately, CDC would win the elections by a clear margin but would be very far from obtaining an absolute majority.

The agreement between CDC and ERC goes beyond the 27 September elections and the election of the Catalan President. It also foresees the creation of a wide government coalition to navigate the months after the elections and negotiate independence with the Spanish institutions and international organisations. In fact, Mas stated he was worried about ensuring the governability of the country in any scenario. Furthermore, if citizens do not overwhelmingly vote for pro-independence candidates, then professional politicians from pro-independence parties would have to sit in the Parliament, which otherwise would only include independents and pro-Spanish unity parties.

The unitary list will include many representatives from civil society organisations and will also include active politicians from the Liberal CDC, the Social-Democrat ERC and the small and recently created parties Moviment d'Esquerres (MES) – formed mostly by former members of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) – and Demòcrates per Catalunya – created just a few days ago by members of the Christian-Democrat UDC. The CDC and the ERC will split the positions for politicians: 60% for the Liberals and 40% for the ERC. They are then expected to leave some of their positions to representatives of DC and MES. It has not been released how many of the total positions will go to independents.