PDeCAT to become part of Puigdemont's JxCat pro-independence party

Just over three years since it replaced the CDC party that ruled Catalonia for over 20 years, the pro-independence PDeCAT party has said it will join with Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) as a single party under the leadership of former president, Carles Puigdemont.

The leadership of the Partit Demòcrata Europeu Català announced its intentions in Barcelona on Friday, although it also said that the idea would first be put before the party membership for ratification at its National Council to be held on Saturday.

JxCat was originally formed as an electoral alliance of PDeCat that included candidates from the party but also independents to contest the 2017 Catalan election, with Puigdemont as the main candidate. In July 2018, JxCat was registered as a political party.

The PDeCat leadership ruled out any specific formula for making the transition, but said that the party's aspiration was to continue to seek the independence of Catalonia and to become a "key element" of JxCat under Puigdemont's leadership.

Unwilling to give many details on the proposal, the PDeCat head, David Bonvehí, limited himself to saying that the party would not immediately be absorbed into JxCat but would be part of a "broad structure" and that it would continue to be a party "for a long time at least."

JxCat's electoral success under Puigdemont, who continues in exile in Belgium where he went following the failed independence bid in 2017, has led to a fall in support for PDeCAT as well as certain tensions between the leaders of both groups.

PDeCat was the result of a rebranding process by the CDC party that ruled Catalonia uninterruptedly between 1980 and 2003 under former president, Jordi Pujol. CDC officially became PDeCat in July 2016, under the CDC leader and former president, Artur Mas.