Puigdemont is considering leaving the presidency of Junts to focus on the Consell per la República

What if the ‘expresident’ Carles Puigdemont will stop presiding Together for Catalonia? The question is not a mere hypothesis formulated at random. Sources from the Consell per la República admit the possibility that Puigdemont may choose to reinforce his role in this body by renouncing the leadership of the Junts. Why? Because that way I would maintain a “institutional” role as the leader of the independence movement abroad, not anchored to any specific political acronym, since what the Consell intends is to bring together all the Catalan secessionists regardless of their militancy in one or another formation.

Asked about it, Puigdemont has declined to comment. The calendar is as follows: in February the positions of the Consell will be chosen, which until now had a provisional address that had not been voted by the bases. Once what calls itself an alternative parliament has been constituted, the so-called assembly of representatives, made up of 121 members (80 grassroots citizens and 40 institutional positions) chosen last November electronically by the 102,000 members that the entity has.

Match discipline

Continuing with the simile of institutional politics, the entity also elects something like a government, which in all probability will continue to preside Puigdemont when the ‘investiture’ session of the assembly of representatives is held and the president is voted. This will form his team, called the government of the Consell.

From there it is when the great novelty could take place: that Puigdemont, always allergic to vertical party disciplines, takes the step of abandoning the presidency of the Junts – it remains to be seen if also the militancy – to focus on the Consell and, in parallel, in his personal objective: the return to Catalonia if the European judicial institutions agree with him in his battle with the highest Spanish judicial authorities on account of the extradition request.

Acronym changes

The political career of the ‘expresident’ is full of changes in acronyms. He has never hidden his preference for projects and ideas rather than for the day-to-day management of party structures. In Convergència he did not hide his discomfort regarding, especially, the coalition with Unió, and his management of the Girona mayor’s office moved beyond the classic ideological borders of the CDC.

From Convergence went to PDECat He was in the front row in the convulsive constitutive session of the post-convergence, but he soon made his independence of criteria clear when he took the reins of the Government. And he forced the new party to put on the electoral suit of Together for Catalonia and to dispense with the majority of members of the electoral lists planned for 2017, for the benefit of a team of independent professionals decided personally by him and a small core of faithful.

And when Junts, who was largely nurtured, directed and financially fed by PDECat, strayed from his ideas, he first founded the National Call for the Republic, an entity that took with it much of the post-convergent political and institutional power under a supposedly multi-party umbrella. When this experiment failed and after constant clashes with his party, the ‘expresident’ kept the initials of Junts and set up his own political structure, with which he competed with ERC in last year’s elections.

Risks and benefits

The risks of leaving the leadership of Junts are that this formation suffers a loss of support. Many of the paintings that are grouped under these acronyms do so for one reason: Puigdemont. Without him at the helm, internal cohesion it could be damaged. And then the internal debate (Junts has to hold a congress in principle before the summer) would accelerate, with the aim of finding clear leadership in a formation with a leading role, today, plural.

Puigdemont could, yes, maintain the militancy in Junts and continue to tacitly support this bet. But, for years, his intention is not to lead the electoral candidacy. In the last elections he ended up doing it, but in a merely symbolic way and pressured by the impact that his figure generates in any electoral battle. Now, however, once the political formation is consolidated – which is part of the Government and has only one seat less than ERC in the Parliament – the departure of the ‘expresident’ could precisely force the Junts cadres to put order.

The judicial battle

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The advantages for Puigdemont are obvious: it would maintain its figure associated with a external leadership of the ‘process’, without being tied to any party discipline, and thus trying to expand the bases of the Consell, which now number 102,000 members. He could also focus on his legal-political battle to return to Catalonia and, if successful, do so under the label of ‘expresident’ rather than as a candidate for one or another pro-independence party.

In any case, no less question is on the horizon: for Puigdemont to maintain its protection against the future in the future. Supreme court, he would have no other option than to once again choose to be a deputy in the European elections 2024. And then you should have a party or platform. But for him it would not be anything new, nor excessively difficult, to set up a new structure, given his ability to drag under his leadership a not lesser part of the independence movement and of positions and cadres of the old Convergence.