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A symbolic Presidency

In an interview given under strict conditions, the ERC leader Oriol Junqueras proposes a symbolic presidency operating alongside an effective government

Interviewed for Diario 16 under what the journalist María José Pintor claimed were some of the strictest conditions imaginable, ERC’s Oriol Junqueras responded to written questions, dictating his answers to his lawyer.

In the interview Junqueras proposed a symbolic executive headed by Carles Puigdemont paralleled by an effective day-to-day executive in Catalonia. Asked if it was possible for Puigdemont to preside over a government from exile, he said that it was necessary first to see if he could be elected by parliament. “This is a basic democratic principle,” he said, “as this will decide if an effective presidency is possible.” Asked if he could lead a government from Estremera, he replied, “prison has many limitations. It would be the same.”

The interview was published two days after the Speaker postponed the full investiture and also after messages were published of a conversation between Puigdemont and Toni Comín in Brusseles in which Puigdemont admitted that his career “is over”. Junqueras avoided criticising JxCat or Puigdemont for having been able to campaign from Brussels while he could not participate, arguing that ERC has achieved a good result in the lection after a “generous” campaign.

In a another interview yesterday, ERC deputy leader Marta Rovira mirrored the proposal, placing even more pressure n JxCat.to propose an “effective” formula to invest Puigdemont resulting in a Presidency and the immediate capacity of naming ministers and signing decrees which can be published in the Offcial Bulletin. Once a government is in power, 155 would no longer be enforced.

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