The parties will stand together under the name Esquerres per la independencia – The Left for Independence, with the aim of developing their joint efforts for the defence of Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Esquerra Republicana and EH Bildu take another step in our alliance and common project, and stand jointly in coalition for the elections to the Spanish Senate on the 23rd of July under the name Esquerres per la independencia. We thus ratify and strengthen our ties, not only between our parties but between both nations. The outstanding results of the joint efforts of our organizations so far lead us now to offer Basques and Catalans a more solid project and a stronger alliance to continue and extend the work begun in improving the lives of citizens and to progress towards the future in the liberty we wish for our countries.

The Catalan and Basque left-wing pro-independence sovereigntist parties Esquerra Republicana and Euskal Herria Bildu stand today before their nations, volunteering our commitment to do everything in our power to respond to what our peoples yearn, need and demand.

Catalonia and the Basque Country, two nations, two peoples who share not only a history of our joint struggle for the right to be and to exist, but also a future building our own republics that respond to the aspirations and challenges of the Catalan and Basque societies. A just and free future.

This social yearning, this majority will to achieve a just republic for the common social majority, demanded and demonstrated by our societies throughout their histories, is also the backbone of the sovereignist left-wing political projects that we are committed to, providing a response to this shared demand.

Over the last years, Esquerra Republicana and Euskal Herria Bildu have taken advantage of all the opportunities provided by our political action in the Spanish Congress and Senate to advance on the path of national and social construction that the Basques and Catalans demand, constantly prioritizing the interests of our countries, of our peoples, over factional and electoral interests.

That is why we decided four years ago to join forces and act in a coordinated and strategic manner through an agreement that has brought progress for the social welfare of our citizens and for the resolution of the Catalan and Basque conflicts with the Spanish state, which for our peoples remain unresolved.

Esquerra Republicana leader Oriol Junqueras thus considers that “with responsibility, intelligence and a great deal of work, we have shown that the union between us makes us stronger. All the votes we have been given, all the trust placed in us, has meant that our members of Congress and the Senate have been decisive throughout this legislature. We have shown that political union has led to our winning and offering our citizens progress in rights and freedoms.”

For his part, Euskal Herria Bildu General Coordinator Arnaldo Otegi believes that “during this time, we have been a wall of containment against the ideological right and their stratagem for involution and recentralisation. We have been useful and determining forces in order to propitiate social breakthroughs, and that despite not having the depth and scope we would have liked, we have managed to improve the lives of the common social majority. And we are sure that we will be useful forces again. That has been, and is, our commitment and responsibility: to make progress and hinder regression. Now more than ever.”

There is a lot at stake on the 23rd of July and we will not fail. During these four years we have been decisive, and we will be so again, with even greater force. The rights, freedoms and future of the common social majority are at stake. We are sure that we will make ever greater progress, because we will be ever more. Let us make it possible.

Esquerra Republicana
Euskal Herria Bildu
8th June, 2023