Consell per la República denies it wants to oversee the presidency of the Generalitat

The Consell per la República (CxR), which has played a central role in these last hours in the public break between Reublican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Together for Catalonia (JxCat), has denied on Monday it seeks to oversee the presidency of the Generalitat. After the vice-president, Pere Aragonès, has assured that JxCat wants to subordinate the Government to the CxR, former MP and member of CxR Lluís Llach has wanted to dissociate the entity from the negotiations to form a new executive, He claimed CxR is not seeking to direct autonomic politics. In any case, he has made himself available to pro-independence parties should they reach a "consensus" on the specific role to be played by the Consell. In the meantime, he has assured that the entity presided over by Carles Puigdemont has its roadmap defined - the so-called Let's prepare for unilateralism - and that they will continue to work on this line.

"I am outraged that it is said that we want to oversee. I find it appalling [...]. I speak as a delegate of the Consell per la República and we do not accept this. It is not true and we have repeated it in all the negotiations", said Llach in an online press conference. Previously, in a statement CxR explained that in recent weeks it has held talks with all pro-independence parties and entities to facilitate "consensus". "We have always been open to making the necessary changes to ensure the highest level of inclusion and transversality if this served to strengthen its legitimacy and support a dialogue between pro-independence forces that would lead to a strategic consensus," the document says, adding that on May 4 there was a joint summit on this issue in which it was also made explicit that CxR did not want to "oversee" anything.

"The Consell was born as a republican institution for pro-independence parties and organisations to discuss and jointly develop a united strategy and the confrontation to which the Spanish state leads us," the organisation concluded in the statement. ERC proposes, on the other hand, that the functions of CxR be limited to the international projection of the Independence bid.

Putting an end to "unproductive internal" wars

Faced with the current situation of disagreement between ERC and JxCat, CxR appeals to the "responsibility of all leaderships" and to avoid "divisions and internal wars that are totally unproductive". It expresses "respect" for the agreements reached by the pro-independence parties in the formation of a government, but reiterates the "desire" to forge an executive with Esquerra, JxCat and CUP that reaffirms the "commitment" of October 1 and the "legitimacy" of the Consell as an "institution constituted from an agreement" of the forces that supported the proclamation of independence in 2017.