Junts Splits: a Group of Members Resigns With Harsh Accusations

Problems are multiplying for Carles Puigdemont and his attempt to relaunch Junts's project. An unofficial group of activists grouped under the initials JuntsxJunts have announced their decision to collectively resign. They have done so through a harsh statement accusing the leadership of a lack of transparency and internal democracy.

These are the logical consequences of the tightrope walking by Junts's leaders at the refounding congress last October in Calella. Puigdemont and Turull managed to impose their absolute control within the organization. But at the same time, they wanted to give a fictitious image of plurality and unity by maintaining the presence of different internal currents within the party.

This rupture also stages the internal crisis of the post-convergence space, especially as a result of the agreements with PSOE. Within the party, there are still grassroots independentists critical of Puigdemont and Turull's strategy.

It is also a new wake-up call in the face of the threat of vote transfer to Aliança Catalana.

Harsh Statement Against Junts's Executive

The group of activists JuntsxJunts announces in a statement their "collective resignation" and details the reasons. They joined Junts "excited about a project that wanted to be innovative, transversal and participatory," they claim. They came from different backgrounds, without experience in politics, willing to "work for national sovereignty."

They declare themselves heirs of October 1, and until now faithful "to the legitimate president of Catalonia in exile."

But they note "a change of course" that they have tried to rectify without success. They accuse Junts's leaders of buying off the promoters of this group with relevant positions "in exchange for keeping us under control."

Now they break the party card due to the "lack of transparency and internal democracy." They regret that the party "has ended up in the hands of those who endorse autonomism by making deals with the parties of 155." And that instead, those who seek change "are sidelined and made invisible" within the party.

They Open the Door to Vote Leakage

These activists claim that the October congress was "the culmination" of this process of recentralization. A process due to which many grassroots activists "have been leaving quietly."

They accuse the executive presided over by Puigdemont of limiting the internal participation of other internal currents. It mentions one of the lists presented in Alt Penedès or the complaint from the left-wing current led by Agustí Colomines and Aurora Madaula. It is, according to them, "the leadership's eagerness to deactivate ideological transversality and place the four like-minded individuals."

But above all, it points to the inability of Junts's independentists to return to the theses of October 1. "At this point, we consider that Junts no longer represents us and that it doesn't serve to achieve our objectives," they conclude.

This split fully opens the door to the leakage of votes from those critical of Junts's leadership and strategy. Which is good news for Aliança Catalana, the main container of votes from Junts's discontented members.