The Crida calls for unity
Puigdemont’s and Torra’s movement sets the goal of establishing itself around the country to create a common front of pro-independence parties
The Crida Nacional per la República, led by Jordi Sànchez and Toni Morral, in its constituent congress yesterday in Barcelona, set the difficult goal of achieving a united pro-independence electoral front made up of the ERC, CUP and PdeCAT parties. Despite reluctance on behalf of the parties, the Crida proposes establishing the movement across the country.
Toni Morral, the secretary general of the Crida, and de facto leader with Sànchez in prison, yesterday laid out the challenge facing the movement of “spreading the call for unity throughout the country.”
Morral and the movement’s leadership face an “intense political agenda”, in Sànchez’s words read out at the congress. With this goal in mind, it was one of the leadership, the mayor of Montblanc and ERC activist, Pep Andreu, who got the most applause, after he said he would not leave ERC but that the pro-independence movement has to remain united until it achieves its objective.
The upshot was that facing future elections will require a model along the lines of the Junts pel Sí candidacy, which the congress believe made the October 1 referendum possible, given the differences between the parties. As a result, the Crida is now calling for putting party interests to one side to win elections, international legitimacy and attract “new sectors of society.” The Crida also puts itself forwards as a possible “stronger” interlocutor with the Spanish state.
The Crida also committed itself to help bring about a “binding, effective and agreed” referendum through a process of dialogue with the state, but without setting any deadlines.