Esquerra Republicana and Galicia’s Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) set the stage at a meeting on Friday in Barcelona to proclaim their shared determination to continue strengthening the political relationship and cooperation between both parties in all the spheres they share.

The gathering was attended by Esquerra’s Deputy Secretary General Oriol López, Deputy Secretary General for Labour Relations and Open Party Laura Pelay, and International Relations Secretary Adrià Guevara. The BNG was represented by their International Relations Secretary and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Galicia, Montse Prado, Party Secretary Lucía López, and their spokesperson in the Spanish Congress, Néstor Rego.

At the meeting, both traded their analyses of the current political situation in Catalonia and Galicia, as well as the leading social, economic and institutional challenges facing both nations. The meeting also served to share diagnoses on the evolution of the political context in Spain and Europe.

In this regard, both expressed their concern about the political situation in Spain, marked by the progressive loss of public trust in institutions, especially regarding the persistence of corruption, and the actions by the Establishment, demonstrating de facto limitations to democracy. They also agreed on the need to strengthen mechanisms for transparency, democratic control and accountability, and reaffirmed their resolve to carry on working on shared roadmaps from their respective political arenas, respecting the political and organizational autonomy of each party at all times, with the aim of defending the interests of Catalonia and Galicia in the current context of the rise of the hard right and international reactionary backsliding.

The meeting also served to consolidate the areas for collaboration between both pro-sovereignty, left-wing parties in the European context, where Esquerra and O Bloque share the political space within the Ara Repúbliques coalition, and the same parliamentary group in the European Parliament. In this area, they discussed the leading legislative debates, including the European policy for migrant deportations, and the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, which they consider detrimental to the primary sector of both Catalonia and Galicia.

Likewise, both expressed their commitment to greater collaboration within the Spanish State, especially regarding the advancement of the recognition of its plurinational and plurilingual character and thus the rights of stateless nations, beginning with the right to self-determination.

In an increasingly turbulent dog-eat-dog world, in which international law is repeatedly violated, Esquerra and O Bloque reiterate their commitment to both the defence of peace in the face of bellicose warmongering, and to the respect for the sovereignty of peoples.