▲ The Secretary General of Esquerra Republicana de Cataluña, Marta Rovira (at the microphone), together with the Catalan regional president, Pere Aragonés, presenting the results of the consultation on the appointment of Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat.Afp Photo

Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 3, 2024, p. twenty

Madrid. The rank and file of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) support its leadership to appoint the socialist Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat, after a consultation among 6,349 members of the Catalan left-wing independence party. pre-agreement The agreement signed by the secessionist party and the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) aims to provide the autonomous community with an independent tax system outside the public treasury of the rest of the Spanish state.

The difference between those in favour and those against was minimal, but sufficient to endorse the strategy of the ERC leadership: out of 6,349 votes, 3,397 were in favour, 2,847 against and there were 105 abstentions. In other words, those in favour of investing Illa are 53 percent, and those who were against, 44.8 percent.

The consultation was carried out online. Only the 8,200 ERC members registered and up to date with their dues payments were eligible to participate.

The question they answered was the following: Do you agree with ERC voting in favour of the investiture of the socialist candidate in exchange for fiscal sovereignty, the promotion and protection of the Catalan language, the national convention for the resolution of the political conflict and the rest of the agreed measures?

According to the ERC leadership, the pre-agreement This will strengthen Catalonia’s aspirations for independence by providing it with its own tax regime, independent of the Spanish common fund, meaning it will no longer have to participate in the policy of redistributing wealth from the richest regions to benefit the poorest.