26.05.2014 - 20:42
“We will use these results in support of the November 9th referendum,” said ERC president Oriol Junqueras, celebrating that Esquerra was the most voted party in Catalonia in the European elections. Today, ERC’s Secretary-General Marta Rovira declared in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio that her party is willing to join the Catalan government in order to “guarantee institutional stability and to do whatever necessary so that the citizens of Catalonia can decide their political future.”
Here are Rovira’s declarations:
And here is a translation of the interview:
Mònica Terribas at Catalunya Ràdio interviewed Marta Rovira, the Secretary General of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia), this morning.
Mònica Terribas: We’re speaking with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya which has won the elections for the first time since the Second Republic [in 1936]. Good morning, Marta Rovira.
Marta Rovira: Hello, good morning!
MT: Congratulations!
MR: Thank you. We have to all congratulate each other because we had two very clear objectives, in my opinion, in these elections. One was to increase voter turnout, which remains very low but our average is much higher than Europe’s and in the Spanish State. The other objective was that the sovereignty process would come out stronger, that the referendum would garner much more support and that all of the parties that support the November 9th referendum would be reinforced by these elections.
MT: Marta Rovira, yesterday [ERC President] Oriol Junqueras said that he wants to use Esquerra’s results to support the sovereignty process and to support the country’s institutional stability. Does “institutional stability” mean joining the Catalan government?
MR: Institutional stability can mean whatever it takes to guarantee the November 9th referendum…
MT: Is what’s needed right now a strong government?
MR: As we’ve been saying all along
MT: Marta Rovira, is what’s needed right now a strong government?
MR: Obviously, today I can hardly say… I mean we have a government pact, we have always said, and I think Oriol said yesterday that we will do whatever necessary in order to guarantee holding a referendum on November 9th, as we have been doing the last years, the last months. I think it’s important to value what we’ve already done within the mark of this pact for parliamentary stability in order to guarantee that which the citizens decided very clearly which is to vote to decide the political future of our country. It seems to me that what we have to do always is put electoral results at the service of the citizenry. It’s important to remember that yesterday, we once again obtained a democratic mandate to work so that this referendum is held and I think that is exceptional.
MT: Yes, but can a democratic mandate for the referendum to be held be better defended by a government comprised of two forces that between them enjoy the support of 50% of our listeners or by the government of Artur Mas who is alone with the support of ERC from outside. Will you join the government now?
MR: If that’s a correct analysis, and we all come to an agreement that it is, then we will do whatever necessary but I can’t respond to that question right now, at this moment. It’s clear that we are willing to join the government and to do whatever is necessary so that the citizens of Catalonia can vote on the political future of this country. Like we’ve been doing for so many months, so many weeks, over the last years.
MT: So you’re ready to join the government in order to guarantee the referendum?
MR: We’ve been saying that forever, since the elections for the Catalan Parliament [in November 2012]. When we saw that the mandate was very clear, when we saw that we had an opportunity on the table so that the people of Catalonia could finally vote on the political future of our country, to choose independence, to construct a new country, well, we did what was called for, and I believe that we will continue to do so because we can’t afford to fail at this historic moment.
MT: How do you explain your increase in support in the Balearic Islands?
MR: I suppose it’s also an explanation of what the citizens of the Balearics want to do after receiving so many blows—for example, we could talk about the Catalan language at school—against the language, culture, and obviously, suffering from fiscal plundering as they do, their very quality of life and therefore they’re coming to conclusions that are very similar to our own here in the Principality of Catalonia and I interpret it the same way, because we say the same things there: that the citizens of the Balearics, of Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa, or Formentera, should be able to do what they decide to do and I believe that that is a philosophy which since it’s really just pure democracy is taking hold in many places where clearly the people don’t have the capacity to decide their day-to-day, they see how what they want is being contradicted, like what the people as a whole havealready decided, like the Plan for Language Immersion in the schools of the Balearic Islands.
MT: Marta Rovira, thank you very much for talking with us this morning, we repeat that ERC is the first political force from Catalonia in the European Parliament, and it hadn’t achieved a win like this since the Second Republic, thus, we congratulate the whole team at ERC for these results. Have a good day!
MR: Thank you. And the citizens should know that from today on, from the first minute, the Members of the European Parliament from Esquerra Republicana will start looking for support in Europe in the European Parliament and on an international level so that we can vote on November 9th. Thank you.
MT: Thank you, Marta Rovira.
Electoral results
ERC won the elections in Catalonia and therefore has gotten a better result than CiU. Esquerra won 23.67% of the vote while CiU had 21.85%. In third place was PSC with 14.28%, followed by ICV-EUiA (10.29%), PP (9.81%), Ciutadans (6.28%). The surprise in Catalonia and elsewhere was the brand new Podemos party, which took home 4.66% of the votes in Catalonia.
According to this data, pro-sovereignty forces won 55.81% of the vote (CiU+ERC+ICV-EUiA). The unionist parties (PSC+PP+Ciutadans) won 30.37%. Podemos, the seventh most voted party has already declared its support for the independence of Catalonia, should the Catalan people vote for it in a referendum. Therefore, this 4.66% could be added to the sum of those favorable to the right to decide.
