“The red line that has marked my political commitment has remained firm despite the adversities that I have had to face for eight years, especially hard for six and a half. We went into exile for the same reasons we will return. The future of our nation and not our personal destiny has inspired all the decisions made. And so it must continue until the end,” said Carles Puigdemont as a prelude to his conference in a tweet, and which he repeated from the platform in the small French city of Elna, where the ballots were printed and the ballot boxes on October 1, 2017.
Before an enthusiastic audience, and supported by the leadership of Junts, he revealed his intentions “I have decided to run for the Parliament elections”because “now that the opportunity to restore the presidency dismissed by 155, there is no point in shying away from this responsibility. This opportunity must be faced with all the consequences“, he concluded to the enthusiasm of his audience. Of course, he will return but not before the elections.He will only return if he has the majority to be invested and the law of amnesty is approved. His absence in the campaign will not prevent him from forcefully expressing what his electoral leitmotiv predicts: «We must finish what started on October 1st. Puigdemont did not clarify whether he will return if he is not elected as a candidate for the Presidency and will take his seat and remain in the opposition.
Puigdemont advocated “the recovery of independence and good government at the service of citizens”, establishing itself as the solution to problems such as drought, and opted for “a unitary candidacy“, in a clear attack on Esquerra Republicana “because since Junts pel Sí, the independence movement has never been the majority group in the Parliament.” With these words, Puigdemont returned his electoral order to Aragonés and opened to incorporate on the Junts lists people of other sensitivities and he established himself as the leader who is capable of “making decisions.”
“Today's Catalonia is not the same as 2017” he said, assuming the discouragement and the hopelessness of a part of society due to “the frustration of not completing the work and due to internal fragmentation”, aggravated by repression. According to the CEO -Catalan CIS- Puigdemont is right because the supporters of the independence they are just the 42% for 51% against.
Despite these data, he defended that “they have not defeated us and not only do we have reasons to regret, we also have things to feel proud of,” he said with a certain tone of self-criticism but claimed to be the candidate “who can finish the job” and “of retake the path that repression blocked”.
Puigdemont highlighted the successes of his negotiation to invest Pedro Sánchez in the “Brussels Agreement” and to seat him at the Dialogue Table in Switzerland – with zasca included against the Aragonés Table – and defended his position as the only one that has freed Catalonia from repression -he described it as structural- and derision. The law of Amnesty is he recognition of “a mistake” that left politics in “the hands of the judges and the police.” For Puigdemont, this law recognizes this error because “we have dragged them into our position. When we let ourselves be dragged we lose, when we drag we win”. And in this drag he raised a referendum of self-determination “as possible as amnesty”. And he stated “we will do it again and better” in case of no agreement.
Puigdemont as champion of the president who rThe Generalitat will recover to promote independence He will stand for election but first he will go through the primaries that will be held this Saturday the 23rd to elect the candidates of his party in the four Catalan constituencies.
It is not easy for the former president because in the May 12 elections Junts per Catalunya starts in third position behind Esquerra and further away from the PSC, but Puigdemont will thoroughly play the card of his return as legitimate presidentalthough it is worth remembering that it is the same strategy which he used in 2017 and 2021.