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Bloomberg
Catalonia’s separatist president is set to name a batch of new cabinet members in a bid to shore up his government after its main coalition partner pulled the plug on their alliance.
The seven new so-called councilors will be sworn in Tuesday, President Pere Aragones said on his Twitter account. The move to fill vacant posts in the administration with officials from his own ERC and other parties comes after Junts per Catalunya, which backed his government, said on October 8 it would exit the partnership. With the changes, Catalonia will have a government “that represents the real Catalonia, that represents the consensus of 80% of the citizens,†Aragones said.
ERC has been a key supporter of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Spain’s fragmented parliament, where the government lacks a majority. But in Catalonia, Sanchez’s Socialists have been highly critical of Aragones’ administration for its openly pro-independence stance.
Aragones formed his government in 2021, claiming a mandate for the pro-independence bloc when ERC and Junts won just over 50% of the vote in elections held in the region. But polls have consistently shown that the number of Catalans who support a referendum on independence is far higher than those who actually support the separatist cause.
Junts, which means Together in the Catalan language, has been at odds with ERC for months as it pushes for a harder, more uncompromising separatist stance while Aragones seeks dialog with Madrid. He has portrayed himself as more focused on governing the region than on pursuing the goal of independence in the short term.
Junts’ decision to pull out came after the party held an internal referendum last week on whether to stay or not, with the break-up faction winning with just over 50% support. The party’s de-facto leader is Carles Puigdemont, who led the botched independence proclamation in 2017 and has been living since then in Belgium as a fugitive from Spanish justice. Junts and ERC were always uncomfortable partners. Junts’ roots are among more center-right, pro-business separatist voters, while ERC has always been clearly left-wing.