Esquerra opened its internal process on Monday to choose its candidate for the next general elections, and Gabriel Rufián has not yet confirmed whether he wants to represent the party in Madrid again. In fact, negotiations between the leadership and Rufián remain open, without any agreement having been reached so far. The relationship between Rufián and the republican leadership has been tense for some time, especially after the republican spokesperson launched a push for a left-wing front across the State—which the ERC leadership rejects. The party, however, has finally decided to seek a plan B in case Rufián ends up declining to lead the candidacy and has already put forward an alternative name, that of deputy Jordi Albert, as reported by El Periódico and confirmed by ARA. Albert has already begun collecting endorsements to present his candidacy.

The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has declared the end of the "political repression" stage following the 1-O, after the Constitutional Court fully endorsed the amnesty. The decision represents, he said, a defeat for the various Spanish public powers that have put obstacles in the way of the law's application "for strictly political reasons." The institutional appearance of the former head of Government took place this afternoon, a few hours after the Supreme Court also announced the lifting of his arrest warrant, which represents the first definitive step for him to return from exile to Catalonia. The leader of Junts has claimed the "enormous political importance" of the law, which disavows the repression and makes it evident that "this was not the way." However, he warned that the political conflict with the State remains in force: "In terms of the Catalonia-Spain relationship, nothing is solved today [...]. The amnesty is not in itself a solution," he claimed from Waterloo.

Gabriel Rufián has spent the last few months asking left-wing and pro-sovereignty political forces to form a common front to run under the same umbrella for the upcoming general elections, which since this Monday already have a date, November 29. The current ERC spokesperson in Congress, however, has been rebuffed by most formations in this space, especially from his own party, which has strained relations with Oriol Junqueras' leadership. With November 29 in sight, Esquerra activates this very Monday the internal mechanisms to configure the candidacy for the next general elections and Rufián leaves it up in the air whether he will be the party's candidate: he admits that he is "reflecting" on what his role should be in the next elections. The republicans' leadership, however, maintains that he is their bet. "He is the best candidate," stated the party's general secretary, Elisenda Alamany, in a press conference.

Gabriel Rufián asked this Friday for "a cool head" from Pedro Sánchez when deciding whether to press the red button to call early elections. The republican spokesperson said this because on the left of the PSOE there is "nothing to add up" – the Sumar space has not yet chosen a visible face nor has it negotiated what its coalition will be like –. This has been one of Rufián's obsessions for months: to bring together the left-wing and pro-independence forces from across the State into a broad front to try to maximize the vote – a proposal that has met with the frontal rejection of Oriol Junqueras –. But beyond how this space is reconfigured, Rufián ignored that if the Spanish legislature ends, the main pacts that ERC still has to fulfill will also be left as dead letters. Without going any further, the new financing model for Catalonia, the star pact that led ERC to invest Salvador Illa, would not see the light of day.

Gabriel Rufián has gone up to the Congress rostrum with a stack of papers, some keys, and a 50-euro bill in his pocket. The stack of papers was to show the hundreds of messages he claims to have received from people asking for ERC to vote in favor of the two housing decrees. The keys, he said, were to his home, which is not his own, he added. And the 50-euro bill was to send a message to Junts: "This is their estelada." While it is already common for the republican spokesperson to repeatedly send darts at Junts in his speeches in Congress, this Friday he dedicated his entire intervention to attacking heavily against the no from Junts to the two housing decrees that are to be validated in Congress this morning. And he made a promise: "For as long as I remain in politics, I will strive to ensure you end up in the greatest ostracism".

The second day of the general policy debate has served to confirm the distance between Salvador Illa's government and the main opposition party, Junts, but also to confirm the pressure that his partners, Esquerra and Comuns, are willing to exert until the end of the term. The 'Juntaires' are the ones who have attacked the President of the Generalitat the hardest: the president of the parliamentary group, Mònica Sales, has described Illa as being the "worst president that modern Catalonia has had" and has proposed censuring him. Esquerra and Comuns have not been at all flattering either; quite the contrary, they have urged him to comply once and for all with the investiture agreements and also those derived from this year's budget. Illa, as usual, has chosen to dodge the criticism, especially that from Junts, and with an optimistic tone has once again extended his hand to all political forces, except Vox and Aliança Catalana.

The star agreement that the PSC and ERC signed for the investiture of Salvador Illa involved moving forward with a new financing model for Catalonia. In that pact, however, socialists and republicans also signed a commitment that went more unnoticed and which, two years later, has not materialized: creating a national convention to resolve Catalonia's political conflict. A forum that, under other names, was tried at the beginning of the process when the National Pact for the Right to Decide and, later, the National Pact for the Referendum were first promoted. The last mechanism that was put into operation was the dialogue table between the Generalitat and the Spanish government, but with the investiture of Salvador Illa, it was formally deactivated. The republicans are returning to the fray, proposing a new parliamentary vote along the lines of the one they already won last year during the general policy debate, with the support of the PSC, Junts, Comuns and the CUP. This year, Esquerra is bringing this issue up again in one of the resolution proposals that will be debated in the chamber and is going one step further: it is trying to set an initial calendar.

Amnesty for Marta Rovira. The Barcelona Court has applied the law to the former secretary general of ERC, who still had an open case for disobedience following the 1-O, according to the court resolution to which ARA has had access. This is the case that the Supreme Court opened against her in 2018 and which led her to go into exile in Switzerland. At that time, the high court accused her of a crime of rebellion, which became sedition starting in 2019 and, after the reform of the Penal Code, was reduced to a crime of disobedience. In May of this year, the Supreme Court decided that it was not competent to resolve this case and transferred it to the Barcelona Court, which closed it this Tuesday by applying the amnesty law. Rovira faced a possible sentence of disqualification, but was no longer at risk of being sentenced to prison.

"Order is needed, legal entry routes must be recovered. A country must control its borders. Based on rights and obligations," stated Gabriel Rufián in an interview on Salvados, on La Sexta. A discourse with which the ERC spokesperson himself in Congress has admitted that the left could accuse him of "buying the right's framework" in the migration debate. "It is completely bought, I only aspire to compete," he answered himself. Rufián's words highlight the debate the left is having when it comes to forging a discourse on immigration, and also that the republican spokesperson, just like his party, ERC, have made a turn to try to stop the far-right's discourse.

No one from ERC has addressed the Maragall family directly to apologize in the last two years. Cristina Maragall, one of the daughters of the former mayor of Barcelona and president of the Generalitat, lamented this Monday that the Esquerra leadership has not requested "a clearer and more sensitive apology to the entire collective [of Alzheimer's patients]" and explained, in statements to BTV, that neither the family nor the foundation have received any message from the party. Sources from ERC explain that this will change immediately once they have closed the internal investigation of the case, the conclusions of which were presented last Saturday to the militants present at the meeting of the party's national council.

Two years after ARA published that the posters about Alzheimer's came from the ranks of ERC, the Esquerra guarantee commission has finally resolved the internal investigation. As this newspaper has learned, the ERC compliance officer, Mireia Ingla, presented the conclusions of her report to the party's national council this Saturday morning, in which she points to the former deputy secretaries of communication, Sergi Sabrià and Marc Colomer, as the top officials responsible for the scandal that shook the party. Conversely, she lowers the responsibility of the former party communication director, Tolo Moya, and also the militant from Anoia who ordered the posters, because she claims they were following orders. The ERC leadership has adopted the conclusions and apologized on behalf of the party before the national council.

Immersed in pragmatism and a negotiating strategy, Esquerra went on vacation shoring up the governability of Salvador Illa after approving the Government's first budgets and thus giving oxygen to the legislature. Oriol Junqueras' party has long maintained that its goal is to be "useful" to Catalonia and that the negotiating strategy, that of trying to wrest sovereignty gains from the State, is the one they consider optimal. For this reason, this autumn is especially key for the republicans, because they have several commitments on the table that the Spanish government must fulfill before the next general elections (whether they are brought forward or not). We are talking, for example, about the forgiveness of part of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) debt and also the new financing model. "We have no problem acknowledging that we will negotiate until the very last moment," point out republican sources.

More pressure on the Spanish government from its investiture allies. ERC leader Oriol Junqueras has asked the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, this Monday to be "quick and effective" in "resolving" the migratory crisis in Ceuta. And he has set clear limitations on reception. In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, he warned that "neither Catalonia nor anyone can host infinitely," with regard to the underage migrants who have arrived in the Spanish enclave in North Africa. The Republican has emphasized Catalonia's willingness to help, although there are "limits" such as the executive, which he has harshly criticized, fulfilling and "monitoring the borders."

The until now mayoral candidate of ERC in Girona, Marc Puigtió, has renounced this Thursday to be the republicans' candidate for the city. He renounces it one day after the party leadership opened an informational file on him following the leak of some audios in which he was heard projecting the disposal of the local leadership and the current councilors. Puigtió has justified the decision by "dignity and responsibility" and has acknowledged having made "a serious mistake," for which he assumes the consequences. Now, according to consulted sources from the republicans in Girona, the party will have to re-convene primaries to choose its candidate for mayor of the city. So far, however, they have not set a schedule.

"My intention was to kick them all out and keep Esquerra. And then, to be able to use their electoral resources". This is one of the phrases that Marc Puigtió, ERC candidate for mayor in Girona, utters in a conversation with a young man linked to Vox, responsible for the Instagram profile Girona Perduda, which spreads disinformation and messages of insecurity in the city. The young man secretly recorded the conversation and has made it public on social media in recent hours. Following this leak, the party has opened an informational file to gather all the information and make a decision. Specifically, the ERC ethics committee met this Tuesday afternoon to open the file and "determine, if applicable, the corresponding responsibilities", they point out from the party, adding that they will not make any further statements on the case until the file is closed.

The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has raised in an interview with Europa Press the need for Catalonia to opt for a broad agreement between all political parties of democratic tradition, social and economic agents –management teams, unions and teachers– to overcome the current deadlock in the educational system, evidenced by "the strikes of recent months and the incident that "has prevented Catalonia from participating in the PISA report. According to Junqueras, this pact should be based on a model of shared, stable, and long-term governance (he proposes it be "for 8 or 12 years") with the creation of teams of experts of recognized prestige and trust within the sector, regardless of their political affiliation and of who governs the Generalitat during these terms.

The uncertainty about the application of the amnesty law to the leaders of the Procés has left a judicial labyrinth open. Waiting to see if the Supreme Court will apply the CJEU ruling, within this labyrinth there is a path that is still unresolved and leaves an open question: in case of a hypothetical non-application of the amnesty, is it possible to open the file for a second pardon to erase what was left pending? At the time, the Spanish government partially pardoned the leaders of the Procés – it was the only possible way after the sentencing court opposed the measure of grace – that is, they forgave them the prison sentence, but kept intact the disqualification penalty that affected Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa, who were also convicted of embezzlement. This disqualification, for example, prevents the current leader of ERC from running in an election –as he has shown himself willing to do– or to teach.

With the ECJ's endorsement still present and the day after former president Carles Puigdemont denounced Spain to the European Commission for non-compliance with the law, separatism has taken advantage of the last control session with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to pressure him, but above all to bring back his hemeroteca. This has been done by the leader of Junts in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, when she told him: "First he said "no amnesty or anything like that"". Shortly after, the head of ERC in the chamber, Josep Maria Jové, was added, who asked him to "remember": "You didn't want it." The President of the Generalitat avoided engaging and defended looking "forward": "An amnesty was necessary so that negotiations could be normalized in Catalonia.

Although the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has validated the amnesty, there are courts that still refuse to apply it. From ERC, the deputy general secretary of organization, finance, and anti-repression, Pau Morales (Vilassar de Dalt, 1994) explains to us what his party's roadmap is to continue pressing.

The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina this Sunday has highlighted the different stances within the independence movement regarding support for the Spanish national football team, a debate that already occurred during Euro 2024. But the insistence with which some of its leaders have come out in recent days with open shows of support for la roja has reopened a debate that the sovereignty movement has never fully resolved: what to do when Spain wins?