Junqueras will run for the presidency of the Generalitat

BarcelonaThe leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, will run as the party's candidate for the next Catalan elections, as Catalunya Ràdio and The Newspaper and the ARA has been able to confirm. The Republican leader, who regained the presidency of the party in December of last year, will make it official this Tuesday at a conference in Barcelona under the title A new national ambitionUntil now, Junqueras had resisted confirming his intention to run in the next Catalan elections, because he maintained that he was currently still disqualified and that, even if he wanted to, he would not be able to.

His legal situation has not changed, but the Republican leader has decided to take the step in the hope that the Constitutional Court will rule favorably on the appeal for protection of constitutional rights he filed months ago to have the amnesty applied to him and the entire sentence from October 1 lifted. Junqueras remains disqualified until 2031 because the amnesty has not been applied to his embezzlement conviction.

Apart from the appeal to the Constitutional Court, Junqueras is also awaiting the response of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to the preliminary questions sent to it by the Supreme Court regarding his case. An issue that this court should resolve on November 13, as explained by the deputy secretary general of ERC, Oriol López, in statements to Catalunya Ràdio.

The Republican leader had already hinted in recent months at the possibility of heading his party's candidacy again. "I want to help in all areas and perhaps through the candidacy for the presidency of the Generalitat," he said, for example, in a recent interview on TV3. López recalled that the last time Junqueras was a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat was in 2012, before the November 9 and October 1 elections. In the 2015 elections, ERC ran in coalition with CDC under the banner of Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes), and after the 2017 referendum, Junqueras was no longer able to run due to his disqualification.

Whether or not the party's leadership would be renewed marked the internal war within Esquerra a year ago. Junqueras ran with the intention of continuing to lead the party after almost four years in prison, while the alternative candidates—Nueva Izquierda Nacional, Foc Nou, and Recuperem ERC—were banking on a change of leadership. However, both Nova Esquerra Nacional and Foc Nou were banking on a two-headed leadership of the party, and Xavier Godàs's candidacy had backed Junqueras as a presidential candidate, although they emphasized that a primary process was always required.