Puigdemont and Torra to promote new political movement

The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and his successor Quim Torra will present a new political movement called 'Crida Nacional per la República' (National Call for the Republic) on Monday evening.

This is an attempt to develop the candidacy Puigdemont put forward last autumn for the December 2017 election, Junts per Catalunya, and it might include a call for pro-independence parties to join.

The new movement is expected to especially focus on PDeCAT, the party which supported Puigdemont's ticket last year.

PDeCAT took up the mantle of the now-inactive CDC party, which held sway over Catalonia for almost thirty years since the 1980s in coalition with Unió force. The CDC is part of the ALDE liberal group in the European Parliament.

Puigdemont's move relationship with PDeCAT

How or whether Puigdemont's movement and the PDeCAT party will join forces is one of the main unresolved questions.

PDeCAT is to hold a congress this weekend when the issue might be discussed. Its management is expected to the decision to its members' hands.

This crucial decision is to be made ahead of the local elections on May 2019, during which it still remains to be seen whether there will be separate or joint tickets of both PDeCAT and Crida Nacional per la República.

Junts per Catalunya and PDeCAT have a similar political stance, with the second one usually taking a more moderate approach when it comes to the independence debate.

ERC rejects joining move

What does seem certain is that the other mainstream pro-independence party, left-wing Esquerra Republicana (ERC), will not join this movement.

Its spokeswoman, Marta Vilalta, said they do not feel like they are the target of this project, which they see as "center-right."