The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has reproached Junts for trying to subject the Catalan citizenry to "an eternal purgatory" by presenting themselves "in the middle" and refusing to choose between the left-wing or right-wing bloc in the general elections on November 29.
Junqueras launched these criticisms this Saturday during a campaign rally held at the Tecnocampus in Mataró (Barcelona), where he shared the stage with the deputy to the ERC presidency and European MP, Diana Riba; the number 2 to the Congress for Barcelona, Mireia Ingla; the number 6, Alejandra Sandoval; the number 13, Jordi Maimí; and the number 3 to the Senate for Barcelona, Joaquim 'Pim' Camprubí.
"If they need to purge something, let them purge it; what cases of corruption have they accumulated throughout history, and votes alongside Vox, too. If they want to purge, let them purge, but let them stop doing harm to Catalonia," the Republican leader emphasized, accusing Míriam Nogueras' party of lining up with PP and Vox in votes, according to him, that run counter to the interests of the Catalan working class.
The ERC leader also went after the Comuns, which are included in the Frente Amplio ticket, considering that supporting them is "throwing away the vote," and held them responsible for political inaction and for not having pushed "any concrete action" from the ministries they have managed.
Criticism of Urtasun and the PSC
In this context, Junqueras called into question the management of the Minister of Culture and number 2 of the Frente Amplio in Congress for Barcelona, Ernest Urtasun, asking whether anyone knows of any relevant measure in favor of Catalan culture that he has promoted: "Neither museums, nor libraries, nor defending the frescoes of Sixena, nor anything at all, nor any initiative in favor of the great cultural institutions of this country."
The Republican leader also argued that voting for the PSC on 29N "also serves no purpose," accusing the socialists of lacking ambition, of "dragging their feet," and of not showing any urgency to reform the system for regional financing.
To illustrate his warnings, he recalled that in recent days it has been confirmed that Argentina is entering a recession and that Chile's pension system has collapsed, and he regretted that the policies applied by Donald Trump in the United States are generating "a runaway inflation": "These are the results of the recipes of the friends of the PP, of Vox and of Aliança Catalana."
The ERC of 1-O and the role in Madrid
For her part, Mireia Ingla has responded to Junts for claiming that they miss "the ERC of 1-O". In her view, what they really "miss is a small ERC, an ERC at their service, and that is textbook classism," she has censured.
The candidate has argued that ERC is the true guarantee for defending Catalonia in Congress, against a PSC that, as she has said, when it lands in Madrid "dissolves into the PSOE like a lump of sugar," and she has accused the socialists of supporting the Catalan language only in a lukewarm way.
Diana Riba has also taken aim at the PSC, which she has reproached for the fact that "each time they have less ambition and they govern in a more gray way," and she has maintained that they only correct their position when ERC forces them to.
The MEP has assured that ERC will meet the demands expressed by citizens during the general strike last Wednesday, unlike parties such as Junts, which, she has said, "have as their only objective to sabotage the advances that could mean improvements in Catalonia," and to which she has accused of voting "always on the side of PP and Vox" in Congress.