Critics amend ERC's report to prevent Junqueras from running again

BarcelonaCritics of Oriol Junqueras will also present a battle in the second phase of the ERC congress. Nueva Izquierda Nacional, the candidacy of Xavier Godàs and Alba Camps, has presented a battery of amendments to make changes to the reports written by the leadership. The most notable is the one that will try to set limits on the term of the current president of the party, which critics want to place at the end of the current mandate, in principle in 2029. With the current statutes in hand, Junqueras, who is on his way to fourteen years as president of Esquerra, could continue doing so until 2040 if the membership continued to give it confidence. Foc Nou, the candidacy that came third in the internal consultation under the leadership of Helena Solà and Alfred Bosch, has put forward a similar proposal.

Following the repression, Esquerra modified article 50 of the statutes, which established that the presidencies and general secretaries can be "re-elected uninterruptedly for a maximum of twelve years," and added that when "they have not been able to fully carry out their functions as a result of political repression (their political rights, this period will be suspended." Now Nueva Izquierda Nacional proposes eliminating the word uninterruptedly so that the counter does not reset to zero if a president resigns and then runs again – as Junqueras did, who folded in May and ran for re-election–, and, above all, the word fully, considering that despite being disqualified, Junqueras can exercise the role of party president. On the other hand, Foc Nou is betting that the party cannot serve more than twelve years "cumulatively", even if it is in different mandates.

Apart from this change, the critics led by Godàs have also put in writing the model of bicephaly that they had defended during the campaign, that is, that whoever is president or general secretary of ERC "will not be able to occupy institutional positions during their mandate." However, they specify that this would not be effective until four years from now, from the next congress, and that, therefore, Alamany could be a candidate for the mayor of Barcelona if she wanted to, and if Junqueras were no longer disqualified he could stand for the presidency of the Generalitat. Foc Nou goes further and is betting that neither the president nor the general secretary can access public office during their mandate, but also not in the three years following their departure from leading the party.

Being an internal current

Although Nova Esquerra Nacional had initially publicly stated that it was not in favour of establishing itself as an internal current within Esquerra, it has now changed its mind and proposes incorporating it into the statutes. They argue that the objective of internal currents should be to "foster internal debate, enrich the plurality of ideas and contribute to the development of the party's proposals", always respecting the party's regulations. Who could be one? Members who collect 3% of the votes. And what would this allow them to do? "Express their opinions within the party's organs, present proposals at congresses, conferences and assemblies, access internal media and participate in deliberation processes". A proposal that coincides with Foc Nou, which has presented an amendment that defends the establishment of "currents of opinion" with the right to participate in "internal debates" of the party.

Rejection of the consortium for collecting taxes

The Esquerra leadership had to correct itself on one of the issues that had been included in its political presentation on the new financing model: in principle they accepted a possible temporary consortium between the State and the Generalitat to begin managing taxes. The general secretary, Elisenda Alamany, promised to eliminate it and limit the text to compliance with the agreement signed with the socialists. Nueva Izquierda Nacional has also introduced an amendment in this sense, to ensure that the change is made effective. They thus remember that one of the agreements is that the Catalan treasury collects all personal income tax in 2026. In fact, it is in the singular financing where Foc Nou also presents an amendment to mark its profile: "The horizon of ERC is not reduced to this consolidation singular, but we will articulate a model of financing and our own treasury in the meantime of the new national attack against the State," he warns. Thus, to define the model he calls for an understanding "with the progressive and national forces of the rest of the Catalan Countries to guarantee a shared vision of solving chronic underfinancing."

The candidacy of Godàs and Camps also takes advantage of the political and strategic presentations on the independence roadmap to establish the ideological framework of the national left. Thus, they defend specifying a "national strategy for the self-determination referendum" that brings together entities and parties from the entire independence space. They propose to address two main issues: the capacity for mobilization and institutional coordination. In parallel, they are committed to coordinating with the sovereignist forces of the Basque Country and Galicia to force a change in the state model that puts an end to the monarchy, because they believe that this can open the doors to a deeper change in the State. In addition, they consider the municipal elections of 2027 to be key and are committed to coordinating strategies with the sovereignist forces of Catalonia.

On the other hand, Foc Nou makes a "total amendment" to Junqueras' independence strategy and supports its own plan for national liberation, which involves "leading" the process to recover independence unity and supporting mobilization while strengthening the nation and the language. Precisely, it also wants to amend article 2 of the statutes, but in the opposite direction to what Joan Tardà intends when he proposes replacing "independence" with "republic." Foc Nou proposes that independence be "the only way to achieve a more just society" and a "primary" objective for republicans.

Nova Esquerra Nacional also asks the leadership to be more specific when it comes to setting a red line for the far right of Vox and Aliança Catalana, and advocates putting in writing that ERC will not reach any agreement, nor with "any political force that seeks agreements." The candidacy also adds "secularism" as one of the republican values, which the leadership had not incorporated into its texts. Likewise, Foc Nou proposes that in the future the strategic congress be held first before choosing the leaderships and emphasizes in the strategic amendments the distrust with the PSOE and that the effect of the pacts with the socialists on the "demobilization" of the independence movement and on the results of ERC in particular must be taken into account.