A compilation the most noteworthy sentences pronounced yesterday by Esquerra’s candidate for President of the Generalitat Pere Aragonès in the first session of the investiture debate in the Parliament of Catalonia:

1. I am in no doubt that today Catalonia needs a wake-up call. It needs to begin a new era with four transformations that cannot be delayed, raising the four flags of the new republican Generalitat government: the Social, Feminist, Green and Democratic flags.
2. We must build new consensus and shape an agreement that will ensure a strong, cohesive government with renewed energy to deal with the great transformations that we must take on as a country. I am convinced that this new republican Generalitat will improve the prestige of the institution and that it will strengthen the confidence of the people. That is my main commitment.
3. For the first time in a century, Catalonia will have a president who is both for independence and progressive. Progressive and for independence. That is why I am committed to governing in response to the vast majority of progressives in this Parliament, committed to governing the country by responding to the vast majority in favour of amnesty and self-determination.
4. I have talked again and again and I will talk again and again about the new republican Generalitat. And I do so because Republican values determine my way of doing things and they will mark the new era that the country’s main institution will now begin. Because we need a new way of governing. Agile. Creative. Disruptive. Close. Effective. Able to take advantage of all the country’s talent and put it at the service of all its people.
5. The new republican Generalitat undertakes to immediately advance a social recovery scheme endowed with 700 million euro, to continue financially aiding small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed professionals most affected by the Covid crisis, to strengthen the welfare state with free education from 0 to 3 years, to advance a mental and emotional health plan, and to transform the whole system of social care.
6. We need to raise our eyes and look to each other again to overcome the current impasse. We need to overcome repression, take the initiative once more. With the leadership of the Generalitat and the strength that the 52% vote for independence has given us in order to move again towards amnesty and self-determination. To advance again, with a firm step and conviction, towards the Catalan Republic.
7. We will promote the National Accord for Self-Determination and Amnesty, to make it clear that the vast social majority knows that the resolution of the conflict with the state must include the freedom of the prisoners and the exiles, and must include the free exercise of the right to self-determination.
8. I want to be President of the Generalitat in order to accomplish the independence of Catalonia. To make amnesty inevitable and to exercise the right to self-determination in absolute freedom. Governing for all the people. Governing for the entire country.
9. Today we begin a new era. From the presidency of the Generalitat, we will lead the social and economic recovery of the country and we will lead the fight for amnesty and self-determination. With one hand we will overcome the Covid that has taken so many people and we will lead the country out of the crisis, and with the other we will advance towards the Catalan Republic.
10. I offer you a proposal for the future, a proposal for transformation, and I ask you to trust me as the first of the public servants, to help me drive the clean sweep that the country needs. Let us do it for all the labour of our mothers and fathers. Let us do it for our grandparents. But most of all, let us do it for our love for our sons and daughters.