The new pro-independence party stands up to combat "procesismo"

Barcelona"Rebel against the political class. Rebel against the Process. Rebel against all the deception they've carried out since 2017. Rebel against emotional hijacking. Rebel against the idea that independence is not possible." Without subterfuge, Dempeus, the new pro-independence party emerging from the sector of the ANC that backed the civic list, presented itself this Thursday night at the Cotxeres de Sants in Barcelona before half a thousand people.

After the pro-independence entity's members refused to support an electoral candidacy in the last elections and the new leadership led by Lluís Llach tried to prevent it from doing so in the future, this movement has moved to forge an alternative to the "procesismo" (independence movement) that, in its opinion, is embodied by Junts, the xenophobic Catalan Alliance, or to stay at home.

One of the first decisions made by this new party, which is committed to a unilateral approach and turning the upcoming elections into a plebiscite, has been the selection of spokespersons. One of them is Josep Punga, who challenged the singer-songwriter for the presidency of the organization as a member of the critical sector. Punga, who left the secretariat a few weeks ago in disagreement with the leadership, justified the creation of a new party in the face of the inaction of the pro-independence parties: "None of us voted for surrender, and the major parties have never had any desire to implement the mandate of 1-O." "Our political class has sold out the country for a mess; they are thieves of hope and enthusiasm," he added in an uncompromising speech.

"We are the ones who mean business"

The party's other three spokespersons, Manel Manzanas, Josep Lluís Rodríguez, and Mariana Muchnik, also former members of the secretariat, were highly critical of Junts and ERC and demanded that their leaders step aside after failing to complete the independence process. "We are the ones who are serious," said Muchnik, who called for "taking back the streets but also the institutions" to reactivate the Process. Muchnik, along with Punga, is one of the two critical secretaries who recently left the entity's governing body. "Independence must be approved and sustained by the Parliament," said Josep Lluís Rodríguez in his turn to speak. Finally, Manel Manzanas explained that the project was born from the bottom up and is "cross-cutting," because the first and only objective is to achieve independence: "Independence first!"

The event brought together the top brass of the project's promoters, such as the former president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, and the former vice president Uriel Bertran, the great supporters of the civic list. Also present were former vice presidents Natàlia Esteve and Núria Marín and a good part of the sixteen current secretaries of the critical sector of the ANC, as well as the activist Roger Español and the former mayor of Arenys de Munt Josep Manel Ximenis, who have also joined this new initiative that aims to shake up the upcoming elections with a solely pro-independence proposal.