Esquerra parliamentary leader Josep Maria Jové defends the need to stand up to the far right “with democratic determination”
The president of the Catalan Generalitat government, Pere Aragonès, has shown a firm countenance before the threat of fascism and has reiterated the duty to tackle it in order to defend Catalonia’s institutions. During question time in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Aragonès called on the parliamentary groups to halt the advance of the far right, defending “clearly progressive and democratic postures.”
“Faced with fascism: rights and freedoms. Faced with the reactionary surge: Catalonia must be defended. Fascism is to be fought, not flirted with,” asserted the president, waiting to see how local anti-fascist cordon sanitaires come unravelled on the day after the conservative People’s Party included far-right Vox in the government of Valencia.
Mr Aragonès warned of the danger of sidling up to fascist premises and expressed the need not to show any complicity. “Not in any town in Catalonia, nor in any corner of the Catalan Countries, must we allow the far right to advance,” said Mr Aragonès.
Esquerra parliamentary leader Josep Maria Jové’s address was in the same vein, as he expressed the need to stand in the way of populism in the Catalan institutions. “Opening up the institutions to the far right is absolutely reckless. For us, the anti-fascist struggle is an irrevocable duty,” Mr Jové reaffirmed. He also defended the need to be firm and decisive in the face of fascism. “We cannot afford to waver,” he added.
As Mr Jové stated, Esquerra Republicana’s struggle is for a democratic, progressive, anti-fascist, free and independent country. “A country can be free only as long as its citizens are free. Without leaving anyone behind,” the leader of the parliamentary group assured. “To achieve that, the first inescapable duty is to safeguard the institutions, and thus the citizens, from populism and the hate speech voiced by fascism. Under no circumstances can we whitewash them,” reiterated Mr Jové.