ERC and Junts clash on the 85th anniversary of Companys's execution.

BarcelonaWithout respite. The execution by Franco's troops, 85 years ago today, of the former president of the Generalitat, Lluís Companys, has done nothing to ease the differences between Junts and ERC. Faced with the rise of the Catalan Alliance, for which all polls predict strong growth, and after some Junts mayors have called on the leadership to take a tougher line on immigration, the secretary general of the Republicans, Elisenda Alamany issued a warning to Carles Puigdemont's party during this morning's torchlit march: "We can either provide cover for the reactionary gamble of what Catalonia has never been, or we can return the country to a determined nation."

Words that have been forcefully echoed by the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, during the tribute to the former president at the Montjuïc cemetery, where the traditional floral offering was laid at his grave. The second-in-command of the regional council members responded to ERC with this barb: "When we don't hand over Catalan institutions to those who want them to be minority and Spanish, we are also paying tribute to President Companys and what he wanted and what he desired for Catalonia," he retorted, referring to Esquerra's support for the investiture.

Turull made these statements after participating, at 7:00 a.m., along with representatives from the party and the JNC, in the floral offering beneath the plaque commemorating Companys's assassination at Montjuïc Castle. "Now there are no more firing squad guerrillas, now there are guerrillas in robes," he added, denouncing that Spain's "repression" has not ended due to the judiciary's refusal to apply the amnesty law. The Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Josep Rull, also expressed similar views, lamenting that "so many years later" Catalonia is not back to normal. He insisted that two of the 135 members of the Catalan Parliament are in exile due to the risk of arrest and imprisonment, referring to Carles Puigdemont and Lluís Puig.

Isla: "This anniversary arrives today in a reconciled Catalonia."

President Salvador Illa, on the other hand, who also participated in the offering, offered a completely different assessment, stating that "this anniversary arrives today in a reconciled Catalonia." Isla affirmed that the memory of former President Lluís Companys sends a message to the whole of Spain. "Coexistence means recognizing and guaranteeing its diversity, that of its territories, and its languages," he said, after laying the offering in the Montjuïc cemetery at the tomb of the former president, executed 85 years ago today after being tried by a summary court-martial without due process, recently declared "illegal and unlawful." Be that as it may, the president of the Republicans, Oriol Junqueras, has announced that his party has presented a non-legislative motion in Congress demanding that the Spanish government, on behalf of the Spanish state, make an "act of political reparation" to Companys and to the people of Catalonia as the country represented by the assassinated president.

Illa admitted that there are "opposing views" with the rest of the state, but expressed his conviction that they will be resolved. "I am convinced because the vast majority of Catalans and Spaniards want to share efforts, solidarity, and solutions, far from sterile confrontations," he concluded. He also asserted that the figure of the former president "is the heritage of all Catalans," to prevent it from being capitalized solely by the pro-independence forces.

The CUP (United Left of Catalonia) has denounced that the independence movement "continues to be persecuted and denied the right to choose its destiny" 85 years after the execution of former president Lluís Companys. This was stated this Wednesday by the president of the parliamentary group, Pilar Castillejo, at the annual tribute to the Fossar de la Pedrera, at the Montjuïc cemetery in Barcelona. From there, the anti-capitalist MP echoed Companys' words "when he said that all just causes have their defenders, but Catalonia only has us."