ERC leadership in Igualada resigns en masse amid reproaches to Junqueras

BarcelonaNew mass resignation in ERC. After the cases in Girona and Barcelona, where the resignation of more than half of the executives forced a caretaker committee to be put in charge, now comes that of Igualada. In this case, all members of the leadership have decided to resign in response to the recent internal vote, which rejected the Rufián path (coalition with Comuns and CUP) which the resigning members had bet on for the upcoming municipal elections. And, as in the cases of Girona and Barcelona, they leave with direct criticism of the party's national executive, chaired by Oriol Junqueras.

"We respect the decision of the membership, expressed in assembly, which decided by 3 votes to withdraw from this project. However, we cannot hide that we view it with concern and that we believe that, beyond strictly political criteria, internal dynamics and elements external to the local section of Igualada have intervened, conditioning and influencing the final result," they state in a statement they made public this Thursday. Lest there be any doubt about the recipient of the message, in the same statement they add that "as we already expressed in the communication addressed to Oriol Junqueras himself, we are concerned about the persistence of interference in decisions that strictly correspond to the local sphere, especially in key issues such as the definition of the project and candidacies.

The outgoing leadership regrets "the lack of effective communication channels with the party presidency" and highlights that they have been waiting for a meeting with Junqueras for more than a year and a half. The resignation of the Igualada executive comes before the candidates for next year's municipal elections had been chosen. The last mayoral candidate was former minister Alba Vergés, who resigned her seat shortly after the elections. Vergés, however, had continued to be part of the party's leadership in the capital of Anoia until now.

Junqueras's new phase as president of ERC began with a strong confrontation with a large part of those who had shared his path up to that point. The paradigmatic example was the political divorce with his general secretary, Marta Rovira. But it has been a year and a half since he regained control of the party, and the internal opposition, which remains latent, is neither organized nor has a clear roadmap. Sources from the leadership speak of "internal peace," and critics acknowledge that, as of today, there is no alternative power structure. This does not mean that there are local party sections or federations that are not fully aligned with the headquarters on Calabria street.