radical left pro-independence

CUP’s ultimate veto against current Catalan President Artur Mas has forced its top member, Antonio Baños, to resign from his position as MP. “I couldn’t or I didn’t know how to fulfil the [27-S Catalan Elections’] mandate and therefore I quit” stated Baños in a letter published this Monday. The radical left pro-independence MP admitted to being “amongst those who supported ‘Junts Pel Sí’s proposal and was willing to invest its candidate” and therefore feels “unable to defend the majoritarian position” taken by CUP’s Political Board and Parliamentary Action Group on Sunday. According to Baños, the only goal of his political career was to make this term of office “that of the irreversible break with the Spanish State”. 

The CUP was one of the biggest surprises in the 2012 Catalan elections. This radical left-wing and pro-independence candidacy, which comes from the social movements and started its political career on the local level, entered the Catalan Parliament for the first time three years ago and its influence in the Catalan government, as well as its popular support, has hugely increased since then. The CUP’s programme regarding the upcoming 27-S elections is clear: they accept the “plebiscitary” nature of the elections but bid for an independence that goes much further. As is stated by its slogan, the CUP fights for an “independence to change it all”.