The divorce between Oriol Junqueras and Pere Aragonès is total. The former president of the Generalitat, who achieved all organic and institutional power thanks to Junqueras, will not support him in the primaries to lead ERC. In fact, Aragonès will actively campaign for the ‘Nova Esquerra Nacional’ candidacy, led by Xavier Godàs, Alba Camps and the deputy in Congress, Teresa Jordà, to take control of the party. This same Saturday he will participate in an event to achieve the support of members. A movement that arrives in the midst of an internal civil war.
The proposal of Godàs, Camps and Jordà is presented as “a renewal candidacy, where 67% of its members have never held an organic position in the national executive.” They explain, they are “young people and new faces who combine experience and background, especially at the municipal level, where almost half of the candidates come from.” A declaration of intent against Junqueras, who has been at the head of ERC for more than a decade. The candidacy has a marked feminine accent, with more women than men.
Until now, a large part of the councilors who were part of the Aragonès Government had already publicly supported ‘Nova Esquerra Nacional’. But not the former Catalan president, the most important institutional position that ERC has held in recent years. In this way, Pere Aragonès, who already announced his political retirement after the failure in the regional elections, goes one step further and stands for a candidacy that rejects his political mentor, Oriol Junqueras, continuing to lead the organization for four more years.
Last June, when a group of members and leaders promoted a manifesto calling for a facelift, Aragonès already left clues about the divorce that will take place this Saturday. The former regional president decided to sign his signature, along with that of others such as the still general secretary, Marta Rovira, who will not be eligible to be re-elected to any position in the congress next November, on this document that asked the active leaders that they would make way.
Pere Aragonès also expressed, in some of his latest public interventions, that “it is easier to do a total renovation, if there is a renewal of faces.” A message that many believed was dedicated to Junqueras. Now, with the decision to support a candidacy contrary to his, it is proven that this was the case. Before the final blow, Aragonès gave warnings so as not to take anyone by surprise.
A career with Junqueras
Although Pere Aragonès was leader of the JERC, the youth of Esquerra Republicana, it was not until the arrival of Oriol Junqueras to the presidency of the party when his political career began to take off. The former vice president of the Generalitat, in 2015, appointed him as number two in the Ministry of Finance. Thus becoming one of the youngest senior officials. A few years later, in 2021, coinciding with Junqueras’ imprisonment, he was pointed out by him as his successor.
The relationship began to go awry a little over a year ago, when ERC, Junts and the PSOE were already negotiating the amnesty, and Oriol Junqueras believed he could return to the political front line. Aragonès, with the complicity of Marta Rovira, accelerated the primaries to be re-elected candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, thus preventing an eventual application of the amnesty in the case of disqualification – something that ultimately did not happen -, could lead to Junqueras to want to dispute the fact of being the Republicans’ headliner in the regional elections.
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