Turull receives the total "battle" against Orriols' "hatred"

Prada of ConflentWithout a shadow of a doubt: Junts should not make a pact with Aliança Catalana, according to its general secretary. Jordi Turull, in fact, goes further and proposes a total "battle" against the "discourse of hate" of the formation led by Sílvia Orriols. He presented this on Wednesday from Prada de Conflent as a recipe for combating the far-right, which also includes a "battle of values" and "ethical" against a party with which he said he wants nothing to do. Despite the words of some former convergent leader like David Madí, who calls for reaching agreements with the radical right – an idea not dismissed by some in the local sphere – Turull was emphatic and warned of the "harmful effects" of the growth of the Catalan and Spanish far-right. "The nation sees itself threatened, but [the threat] always came from outside, for the first time it comes from within with hatred towards the different," he stated.

former convergent leader like David Madí, who calls for reaching agreements with the radical right – an idea not dismissed by some in the local sphere–, Turull was emphatic and warned of the "harmful effects" of the growth of the Catalan and Spanish far-right. "The nation sees itself threatened, but [the threat] always came from outside, for the first time it comes from within with hatred towards the different," he stated.

And he also had the opportunity to say that when he hears "leaders of far-right parties defending Western values while pointing at groups with hate in their eyes" he is "perplexed." "If we want to preserve the nation, we must combat these hate speeches of the far-right; nothing good will come from hate," he insisted. Thus, he attacked "the exclusion of so many and the contempt for the different," which "leads nowhere and does not allow progress." He even cited Raimon to explain Junts' path: "We are not of this world nor do we want to be."

From the Catalan Summer University, with the presence of the Junts leadership, including the deputy to the presidency, Albert Batet, the head of municipal policy, Joan Ramon Casals, former ministers Lluís Puig and Meritxell Budó, and other deputies and senators; Turull emphasized that the independentist far-right is now the main "threat" to democratic independentism because it is a "complete amendment" to Catalanism of Christian humanist tradition. "The battle against the far-right is not a battle for hegemony; it is a battle of values, democracy, freedom, social cohesion, progress in all senses," he said. In his opinion, "whatever the polls say," they will continue "believing" in the people of Catalonia and in a movement "conceived for everyone."

Secret services

According to Turull, Aliança, which he never mentioned by party name, "will only distance" Catalonia from the objective of independence due to the number of people, such as those of foreign origin, who "will feel excluded." Even, as other pro-independence leaders have already done, such as the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, he referred to Aliança's possible link with Spanish intelligence services: "We have left too much room for the prophets of discouragement and many of them are on the payroll of the State's sewer systems to prevent the recovery," he said, speaking of Sílvia Orriols and her party, recalling that she immediately hung a Spanish flag in the Ripoll Town Hall when required, while in 2017 the leaders of the Procés "gambled" it.

In parallel, the secretary general of Junts has set "generational reconnection" with young people and being "useful" to solve citizens' problems as homework. In his opinion, "independentism has experienced a narrative crisis" and "too much" has been said about what was done and "too little" about "the aspirations of the citizenry," about "the ambition for the future." Be that as it may, the ghost of Aliança has once again roamed Prada de Conflent this Wednesday, from which far-right leaders are excluded. Even before Turull's intervention, the former director of the Arrels school Elena Gual had said, playing on words, that "independentists will have to go together, but without any Alliance, even if it is Catalan." "The evils that would come from Ripoll were not known, where, as the sardana says, it would be advisable to kill the flea and keep the louse," she concluded.

There was still an opportunity to hear, right at the beginning, the conspiracy theories about the Rambla attacks by the president of the governing board of the Catalan University of Summer, Jordi Casassas, who stated that "now there is no Procés and, therefore, there is no attack." Be that as it may, Turull evaded this outburst and explained how to confront the far-right and explore the complex path of independentist "recovery," starting by pointing out the "opportunity" left by the "poor management" of Salvador Illa's executive and being its alternative, in addition to "not being the permanent complainer," but associating oneself with "good governance."