Consell de la República, Puigdemont's (other) money pit that's sinking

What began as a kind of "state structure in exile" promoted by Carles Puigdemont after his flight to Belgium is now little more than an empty shell. A shell that, moreover, is shaken by internal struggles, lack of transparency, and mass resignations. Consell de la República, conceived as a "parallel government" to keep the flame of the 'procés' alive, is sinking just as the separatism movement is sinking.

This week, 13 regional delegates and a total of 22 members or former members of the body have signed a devastating resignation letter. They accuse the current leadership, headed by lawyer Jordi Domingo, of authoritarianism, malpractice, and organizational fraud. "We don't want to be complicit in the perversion of a dream," the signatories conclude. 

The toxic legacy of Comín and Puigdemont's flight

The conflict isn't new. Since Puigdemont resigned as president of Consell in 2023, the institution has entered a spiral of irrelevance and disconnection. Even then, alarms were raised over the opaque financial management of Toni Comín, former minister and then vice president of Consell. As many will remember, Comín was accused of unjustified expenses and lack of audits.

Now, with Jordi Domingo at the helm, there is neither an operational government, nor have regional leaders been appointed, nor has an action plan been presented. The accusations range from manipulation of internal votes to the use of "subsequent decrees" to cover up irregularities. All this, meanwhile, outside platforms—such as ANC—are used for institutional appearances without showing any symbol of Consell.

ANC also implodes: same pattern, same failure

Consell's crisis isn't an isolated event. It adds to the parallel implosion of ANC, the other major pseudo-civil structure of the separatism movement, also now under the control of figures close to Puigdemont. Presided over by singer-songwriter Lluís Llach, ANC is suffering from a hemorrhage of members, internal scandals, controversial statutory reforms, and an obvious territorial collapse.

Just this week, about twenty national secretaries resigned, and the Tarragona regional headquarters has closed due to a lack of replacements and participation. At the last members' meeting in the city, 17 people attended. They had 430 registered. The acting coordinator himself summed it up bluntly: "People are burned out. They feel abandoned."

The truth is that both ANC and Consell de la República function as loudspeakers for Puigdemont's personalist strategies. These loudspeakers are focused more on keeping symbolic power structures than on offering viable political horizons. With both bodies eaten away by a lack of internal democracy and endogamy, the result is two organizations that survive on rhetoric alone.