Pro-independence parties continue to grow and achieve historical results in General Elections

Esquerra Republicana has substantiated the victory achieved half a year ago, and returns to the Spanish Congress with 13 seats and the endorsement of 866,630 votes. The leader of Esquerra in the Congress in Madrid, Gabriel Rufián, concludes that this election victory is a clear response to the ruling by Spanish justice on the October 1, 2017 independence referendum. “In Catalonia, independentism and republicanism have sentenced as never before and in the only way we know how, by voting in the November 10 General Elections” he said.

Rufián spoke flanked by other MPs and the party leadership, alongside Esquerra’s National Coordinator, Pere Aragonès, who in turn vindicated the triple independence victory in the General Elections, with Esquerra at the fore, having prevailed in the elections while facing threats and repression. “We said that independentism would come back stronger than ever, and we are stronger than ever in General Elections.”

Independentism has thus achieved historical results in a General Election and the representation of independentism continues to grow. While Basque and Galician pro-independence parties EH Bildu and BNG grow, the Catalan independentist parties now have a total of 23 members of Congress, the greatest representation ever obtained in General Elections.

We have seen the most shameful and unjust sentences, and today the people of Catalonia have handed down their own sentence

Pere Aragonès, National Coordinator of Esquerra Republicana

This victory comes after nine Catalan political and civic leaders were condemned last month to sentences of between nine and 13 years in prison for organizing a self-determination referendum in 2017. In addition, Spain has issued European Arrest Warrants for the extradition of several former Catalan government ministers exiled in Europe. During the month of October, demonstrations in Catalonia against Spanish repression have been constant.

“We have seen the most shameful and unjust sentences, and today the people of Catalonia have handed down their own sentence” concluded Aragonés, dedicating the results of the Republicans to all the victims of reprisals. For his part, Rufián also signaled the other side of the coin, which is the rise of far-right Vox. Before this threat, he made it clear that Esquerra will oppose fascism everywhere.