Puigdemont will not stand for re-election as JxCat president

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont will not run for re-election as president of Together for Catalonia (JxCat). This morning, he sent a letter to party members – to which ARA has had access – outlining his belief that the party needs "a new presidency" that "participates in depth in the political decisions that have to be adopted". "I will not present my candidacy to be re-elected as president of the party, although I will be very pleased and honoured to be able to depart as president in person, with all of you," he explains.

Puigdemont's move, which comes only a few months after JxCat's secretary general, Jordi Sànchez, also announced he would not stand for re-election, frees the way to anyone wanting to run for the presidency of JxCat, which is to hold its congress on June 4 in Argelers (Catalunya Nord), according to the letter. Puigdemont also acknowledges that he has not been involved in the day-to-day running of the party – he has not participated in executive meetings nor in national councils – and is grateful that he has been "respected". "Few political parties would have had the generosity that our party has had and that you have had as memebers, in the respect towards this personal commitment", he assures, since for months he has been focusing on the Council for the Republic, which he also presides. In this sense, he is grateful for the "limitless dedication" of Jordi Sànchez to the party. "He took the reins from prison, as a political prisoner, and this is also an element that remains embedded in the history of our party so that we never forget where we come from, the reasons why we do politics and the adversities that we have in front of us," he concludes.

Puigdemont also defends JxCat's idiosyncrasy, which stops it from being a "classic, vertical, rigid and single-minded party": "This attitude keeps us away from the sectarian temptation in which certain very rigid and vertical organisations tend to fall into, although it also makes the ordinary management much more demanding and complex and is often used by our opponents as a sign of weakness". And he adds: "Debate within parties is not a sign of weakness but of democratic richness, and this is what Junts understands when it encourages internal currents and when it is not afraid of debate and confrontation of ideas"