Party Review – CDC: “Guarantor of pro-independence movement strength”

Barcelona (CNA).- This will be the first time that Liberal Convergència (CDC) has run for the Spanish Elections without its historic partner, Christian Democrat ‘Unió’, and under its own name, after they created the brand ‘Democràcia i Llibertat’ for the last Spanish Elections, on the 20^th of December 2015. The party, now led by former Catalan President Artur Mas, ruled in Catalonia together with ‘Unió’ for nearly 30 years, and in 2015 secured 8 MPs in the 350-seat Spanish Parliament, far from what they used to obtain in the 80s and 90s. However, the party’s candidate for the Spanish Elections, former Catalan Government spokesman Frances Homs, is relying on the party’s “trajectory” and assures that “Catalonia will be defended in Madrid with facts” to which Spain “cannot turn their backs on any longer”.

Convergència sees the 26-J Spanish Elections “as a new opportunity” to explain its “commitment to defend Catalonia with facts” and prove the party’s vocation of “moving forward the country as a whole”, stated Homs in his article published on ‘Catalan Views’, CNA’s blog. Convergència present themselves as a guarantor that Catalonia’s push for independence stays “united” and “strong”, as the party “has acted as a cross party, beyond confined ideologies”. 

Although they havetaken part in Spanish politics several times, playing a key role in helping “the governability of the State”, in view of “the flagrant unfulfilments of this State towards Catalonia and its attempts to reduce Catalonia’s self-government” they have moved toward more pro-independence positions. According to their party leader the fact of the matter is that many people “have decided to disconnect from this State and the 27-S Catalan Elections are a clear example of that”, and Convergència bid to hold a referendum in Catalonia “which could be clearly read by the international community” in order to “draw the exact map of pro-independence supporters”. 

“Does anybody thinks that Alternative left ‘Podemos’ would have committed to holding a referendum in Catalonia if the pro-independence movement wasn’t strong?”, Convergència candidate for the Spanish Elections Homs asked rhetorically during a campaign meeting. “‘Podemos’s compromise responds to the strength of the pro-independence movement”, a “power” which would have to be “expressed democratically through the ballot boxes”, he said.

“Convergència wants for Catalonia to become a new state within the EU and won’t accept defeat in asking for a legal and agreed consultation with the Spanish State”, Homs stated in his article. “We know that more than 75% of Catalans support the idea of holding a referendum. Therefore, Madrid should listen to our programmatic proposal, which foresees the creation of a commission in the Spanish Parliament to tackle the Catalan question”; a Commission which, besides analysing the situation “should be able to discuss a referendum with the will to agree on a date, a question and a legal framework.”