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A new call for the Republic

Puigdemont launches Crida Nacional per la República aimed at redrawing the sovereignty map, with JxCat looking to restore the exiled leader

Carles Puigdemont has taken the initiative before the PDeCAT party congress this weekend. Still awaiting a decision on his extradition from Germany, the former president yesterday appeared by video link to present a political initiative aimed at re-establishing the sovereignty movement. Crida Nacional per la República (Call for the Republic) is the name of the new project that has the backing of Catalan president Quim Torra and Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) MP, Jordi Sànchez. The promoters want the PDeCAT party to be part of the new project, as it did under the JxCat umbrella for the election in December.

Yet the movement (which is still not a party) aims to go further and bring on board other elements of the pro-independence movement, even though the Esquerra party (ERC) has already said it will not join, mainly because it sees the movement as a centre-right group when ERC is firmly on the left.

Torra, along with the JxCat leadership, were unable to attend the event in Barcelona’s Ataneu after a cancelled flight stranded them in Hamburg, where they had gone to meet Puigdemont.

The JxCat leadership will insist on restoring Puigdemont to the presidency if the German court decides to extradite him for misuse of public funds. Talking to the Catalan broadcaster, TV3, a JxCat spokesman said about Puigdemont, “as long as he is not taken into pretrial detention, it will be possible to swear him in.”

Meanwhile, the Crida Nacional per la República is due to take form in the autumn with the holding of a convention. Puigdemont announced the new movement to Torra and Sánchez on Saturday.

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