Pere Aragonès to step down as MP after election defeat
Sitting Catalan president "will leave frontline politics" after "tough" legislature
The sitting Catalan president and candidate for Esquerra Republicana in the Catalan election, Pere Aragonès, will step down as a member of parliament after the election defeat, as he announced on Monday during a televised statement.
Aragonès will not become a member of parliament after Sunday's results, where the pro-independence party and solo-governing force in the Catalan government since October 2022, got 20 seats, 13 fewer than what they had in the 2021 ballot.
"I will facilitate a transition from the acting sitting government until a new president is named. We will continue serving the country until this transition is done. I will also facilitate a transition within Esquerra Republicana from my role as National Coordinator to close this electoral cycle of bad results and contribute to a new cycle of growth," Aragonès said.
ERC also lost the pro-independence battle to Junts+, which won 35 seats during the election.
The sitting president will keep his role in the government while there is no new president and will keep his role in ERC while the party members look for a replacement.
"I will leave frontline politics," Aragonès said, and will facilitate the transition to a new leader in both the cabinet and the party.
"It has been a tough legislature," he added, referencing the amnesty for those pro-independence figures linked to the independence push, the Covid-19 pandemic, and many other challenges, such as the ongoing drought.
ERC will now analyze the party's future, including the force president, Oriol Junqueras, and secretary general Marta Rovira.
"We leave leaving Catalonia in a better position than when we arrived," Aragonès said, explaining the record figures on exports, foreign investment, and more teachers and healthcare workers.
Junts+ and Socialists
Aragonès had already said that ERC would follow the citizens' will after Sunday's results and stay in opposition.
He added that the Socialists and Junts+' opposition had won the May 12 vote, and therefore, "it is for them to manage the situation."