BarcelonaThe main dichotomy that has marked the race towards the November 30 congress has been whether the party should renew its leadership or not, that is, whether Oriol Junqueras should continue to preside over the party or should step aside . Of the four pre-candidates who aspire to lead the party – the deadline for submitting endorsements ends on Friday – there are three who argue that the Republican leader should not continue at the head of the formation. New Esquerra Nacional, the candidacy led by Xavier Godàs, has presented itself as the main alternative to Junqueras and this Wednesday took the opportunity to offer to collaborate with Foc Nou, the list of Helena Solà and Alfred Bosch, to ally – if there is a second round – if one of the candidates wins but does not reach 50%, the vote must be repeated between the two lists with the most votes. “If there is a second round, we have more capacity for understanding with Foc Nou”, said Godàs in the presentation of the candidacy program.
“If it happens, the second round must be the second round towards change, not towards conservation”, he added. Godàs has once again bet on a renewal at the head of the party because he considers that a political cycle has closed and, in this sense, he has defended approaching Foc Nou because it is a candidacy that also defends the same thesis of change. Solà’s list already announced a few weeks ago that they had reached 5% of endorsements, the minimum percentage to become a candidate and officially present themselves at the Congress on November 30. Recover ERC – the candidacy of the 1-O Group – is also committed to a complete renewal of the management, but at this time they have not yet explained whether they have obtained the necessary endorsements to pass the filter.
Godàs does not give credibility to Junqueras’ ‘no’ to enter the Island Government
New Esquerra Nacional not only amends Junqueras’ bid to continue leading the party, but they also question his credibility in matters such as the one he promised this Tuesday: that if he returns to lead ERC, the party will not enter into government with Salvador Island “We refer to the facts, we cannot give total credibility to this proposal”, said Godàs. The candidate recalled that the New National Left has not only taken a clear position against governing with Salvador Illa, but also against entering the municipal government of Barcelona, while Junqueras has not rejected it. Now, none of the two candidacies questions the investiture pact with Illa, only Foc Nou does, which has even proposed a consultation to decide whether to break with the socialists in Catalonia and Madrid.
Return to the 10,000 militants
In the program presented this Wednesday, of 22 pages, New National Left makes a battery of proposals both in the organic field and in the political direction. In the last five years, Esquerra has lost 1,500 militants, and for months it has been in a negative electoral cycle, in which it has chained together several coups that have led it to an internal battle that will be decided at the congress on November 30. New Esquerra Nacional, the candidacy led by Xavier Godàs and Alba Camps and which wants to be the alternative to Oriol Junqueras, proposes, in this sense, to reach 10,000 militants, the highest number the party has had, which reached the in 2007, after approving the Statute and when Esquerra was part of the second tripartite party.
The candidacy also proposes to “recoil” the organization, although the candidate for general secretary, Alba Camps, has admitted that it will be “complicated” after months of internal war: “One of our priorities will be to focus on this reconstruction process, and that’s why we propose a vice-presidency to carry out this task.” In this sense, he defends the bid to differentiate the presidency of the party from the candidate for the Generalitat as a way to focus on the muscular Left. Camps has also defended a party “free of marketing”: “We have seen too many times how people were appointed in exchange for loyalty or support”. New Esquerra Nacional also proposes an “ethical code of communication” to prevent the recurrence of scandals like those of the posters against the Maragalls.
Conference of sovereignist leftists
In the political sphere, Godàs has defended strengthening the space of the national left and bets on holding a conference of the sovereignist and pro-independence lefts – with parties and entities from this space – next year, in addition to “modernize” the political ideology of Esquerra in the “term of one year”. At the same time, New National Left is also committed to creating a “national strategy” to hold a referendum. “We must create the conditions of political hegemony to confront and condition the State to a referendum and that means agreeing to it. A referendum is agreed by imposing it and it is imposed with large political majorities expressed territorially”, he explained Godàs, who has presented the municipal elections of 1931 as his “historic reference”.
