Esquerra Republicana applauds the election of Juli Fernández as Second Secretary and that the new Bureau of the Parliament remains anti-repressive in nature

Raquel Sans Guerra has been elected First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, with the votes of Esquerra Republicana, centre-right Junts and far-left CUP. As of Monday, the Esquerra Member of the Catalan Parliament (MCP) joins the Bureau of the XV legislature alongside Juli Fernàndez Olivares as Second Secretary.

Ms Sans has pledged she will work from the Bureau of the Parliament to ensure and guarantee the representation of the people. “We will defend the rights of all the Members of the Parliament, above all those who are forced to continue in exile by the repression,” said the first Deputy Speaker. Raquel Sans applauded “the anti-repressive, pro-independence accord” and defended that “the country's second institution should have a pro-independence majority with two Esquerra Republicana members,” she added.

An anti-repressive Bureau, a priority for Esquerra

The Chamber also elected Esquerra Republicana MCP Juli Fernàndez as Second Secretary of the Bureau. Mr Fernández obtained the votes of Esquerra Republicana, CUP and five of the Junts MCPs as agreed. In this way, the Bureau of the Parliament will be made up of four pro-independence MCPs – two Esquerra and two Junts members of Parliament – and will thus maintain the anti-repressive majority that Esquerra has called for in recent weeks.

Esquerra Republicana applauds the election of Ms Sans and Mr Fernández to the Bureau as well as the fact this anti-repressive majority is maintained in the body that governs the Catalan Chamber, a condition Esquerra has kept on the table during the negotiations. In the first vote for the Speaker, both Esquerra and the CUP voted blank in the first round, as agreed with Junts. This was to avoid possible counter operations. The vote for Junt’s Josep Rull in the second vote made it possible for him to be elected Speaker.

Esquerra also applauds the fact that the Constituent Session's interim Bureau took into account the transitory vote of the MCPs in exile – Ruben Wagensberg voted by proxy. And they maintain that the Bureau will continue to explore all mechanisms to guarantee votes by Messrs Wagensberg, Puig and Puigdemont.

Esquerra insists that Monday's vote remains outside the subsequent negotiations for an eventual investiture of the President of the Catalan Generalitat government.