Mas willing to lead a joint candidature for the Spanish elections “if necessary”

Barcelona (CNA).- Former Catalan President Artur Mas would opt to create a pro-independence Catalan candidature to run for the 26th of June Spanish Elections, similar to what happened in Catalonia with cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’. According to him this will show the world that “sovereignism has won”. In an interview with 8TV, Mas also admitted to being willing to do “whatever it takes”, including leading this potential list, as “an act of service”. However, the Catalan pro-independence parties in the Spanish Parliament have different opinions regarding the possibility of running together on the 26-J. While former CDC ‘Democràcia i Llibertat’ consider the joint candidature as “the best formula”, left wing pro-independence ERC believe that “ideological diversity gets better results”.

Mas also nuanced that he will not take the initiative to head the list, since he wants to “be free” to express his opinions. The former Catalan President admitted that ERC is reluctant to repeat a joint formula similar to ‘Junts Pel Sí’ but insisted that new Spanish Elections could be a good opportunity for Catalonia, as it will show that pro-independence parties “go together”.

Catalan parties disagree on how to run for 26-J elections

Catalan Vice President and ERC’s leader, Oriol Junqueras, stressed the diversity of the ERC list which ran for the Spanish Elections in December. “We believe that this transversality and this summary of our country deserves our citizens’ trust”, stated Junqueras and admitted to being “so proud of this candidature” that he refused to enter “into any controversy”. A few weeks ago, ERC’s spokesman in the Spanish Parliament, Gabriel Rufián, considered it “more powerful” to have “two groups in the Spanish Parliament which defend the Catalan process from different ideological positions”. “Ideological diversity gets better results”, he stated then.

On the other hand, ‘Democràcia i Llibertat’s leader in the Spanish Parliament, Francesc Homs, insisted that “the best formula” is to be a “candidature similar to that which ran for the 27-S Catalan Elections”. On that occasion, former Catalan governing party CDC and ERC came together and constituted the cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, together with other independent members. “This is the formula which gives us a greater guarantee of obtaining good results” stated Homs, adding that “thus, Catalans would make the most of putting out the ballot boxes”.