Esquerra Republicana must show our national ambition and set the course for the Spanish and the Catalan governments,” said Secretary General Elisenda Alamany at the National Council meeting on Saturday.

“We are here to exact the sovereignty of our country because that is the way to provide the best service for all our people.” With these words, Esquerra Republicana leader Oriol Junqueras opened the National Council meeting on Saturday, saying that in terms of economic resources “the coming days and hours will hold very decisive moments.” Mr Junqueras made these statements at the beginning of an extraordinary meeting of the National Council held to approve the party’s budget and the working plans for the Vice-Secretary Generals.

“We are here to attain accords for the government to allocate greater resources for Catalan language teaching, and we are also here to achieve a better financial system and greater economic resources to be able to designate them to all our people,” said Mr Junqueras, who will meet with the President of the Catalan Generalitat government Salvador Illa on Saturday as part of the round of contacts between the new Esquerra leadership and the main political and social representatives of the country.

Mr Junqueras recalled the “milestones” achieved this week by Esquerra Republicana for the transfer of the Rodalies commuter railways, among others. “The fact that what had been an accord between parties has now become an agreement between governments, and that what might have taken an entire legislature has been done within 10 months, culminating at a time when we will once again have a position of strength in a possible budget negotiation, will all together build up the necessary confidence that we will be able to transfer the Rodalies service and guarantee good service for our workers and students,” he said.

In this week of the finalization of the constitution of the joint administration of Rodalies in Catalonia, with the Generalitat holding a casting vote on the board, and on the eve of several bilateral meetings between the State and the Generalitat in which progress should be made for the country in economic matters, Esquerra’s Secretary General Elisenda Alamany recalled that at those meetings “we have representatives of the same Spanish Socialist party on either side.” “This carries the risk that those who have to defend the interests of Catalonia will do so with less willingness, less forcefulness, and less commitment,” she warned.

Faced with this, she defended that Esquerra must show “the national ambition to conquer freedoms and sovereignties.” “Esquerra Republicana must set the national ambition and the course for the Spanish and the Catalan governments,” she stressed.

Esquerra’s spokesperson warned that “50% of all Catalans are struggling to make ends meet, and one in four is at risk of exclusion.” “As a pro-independence and progressive force, we have the duty to respond. If we don’t, the far right will do it,” she warned. “That is why when you have the option of excluding them from the institutions, you do it,” she said, referring to Ripoll town council. “There are key moments where your legs cannot falter and you have to be courageous and show patriotism,” she added, while also expressing her gratitude “to the colleagues in Ripoll for their courage and values.”