Party review – pro-independence ERC: “We know we have kept our promises”

Barcelona (CNA).- Left-wing pro-independence ERC obtained their best result ever in the last Spanish Elections, held on the 20^th of December last year. With 9 MPs in the 350-seat Spanish Parliament, the republicans tripled their result from 2011 and are committed “to defending Catalonia in Madrid”, as ERC candidate for the Spanish Elections, Gabriel Rufián, has repeatedly stated. In this campaign, ERC focuses on its reliability in comparison with other left parties, such as radical pro-independence CUP, which has opted not to run for the Spanish Elections, and alternative left alliance ‘En Comú Podem’. “We know we have kept our promises”, Rufián said to CNA. Once again, ERC and Liberal Convergència (CDC), the two main pro-independence forces that form cross-party list 'Junts Pel Sí', the governing party in Catalonia, have decided to run for the Spanish Elections separately. However, they highlight the number of initiatives they have backed in the Catalan Parliament, which proves “the exceptional moment” which Catalonia is going through.

ERC’s lead candidate for the 26-J Spanish Elections is again Gabriel Rufián, who comes from speakers association ‘Súmate’ and is a member of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), the grassroots organisation in charge of the massive pro-independence rallies that took to the streets on Catalonia's National Day. Together with Joan Tardà, MP in the Spanish Parliament for several years, he leads the campaign for the upcoming Spanish Elections.

The two names topping ERC’s list for the Spanish Elections have refused to “start any argument” with other forces nor get involved in “unhealthy battles”. In an interview held this Monday at CNA headquarters, ERC’s number 2, Joan Tardà, stated that “other parties’ critics” just make them stronger. He pointed that, “according to most polls”, ERC is likely to obtain a better result than that of Convergència (CDC), their partner in the Catalan government. However, Tardà assured that he doesn’t wish CDC bad results. “The most important thing is to win the battle for participation”, he emphasised.  

ERC present themselves as a clearly and openly pro-independence party that have “kept their promises” and “have defended Catalonia in Madrid”. In an article published on CNA’s blog ‘Catalan Views’, Rufián and Tardà insisted on the party’s will “ to continue defending Catalonia’s interests without asking for permission, neither from the Spanish Constitutional Court nor the government which emerges from the 26^th of June elections”.

ERC have also stressed their progressive side during this campaign, after alternative left alliance ‘En Comú Podem’ won the last Spanish Elections in Catalonia. “We will repeat during this electoral campaign what we have always said, that we can only invest a Spanish government which would apply social and progressive policies in economic and fiscal terms”.

They have also insisted, however, on the impossibility of holding a referendum in Catalonia “similar to the Scottish one within a year”. “We know that this is not going to happen”, they stated in their joint article. “We have seen how the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) have preferred even misgovernment over the acceptance of a referendum in Catalonia. And it is clear that neither the People’s Party (PP) nor Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ would ever accept it”. Thus they called for those citizens “who long for a fairer and cleaner country that the only way to get it is by building the Catalan Republic”.