With the Catalan pro-independence flag, the "estelada," folded in their backpacks between their sandwiches and bottles of water, some 250 pro-independence activists crowded into the parking lot of the Congost stadium in Manresa, an industrial town an hour north of Barcelona, on Monday, May 6. Outside the five buses chartered by the pro-independence party Junts ("together," right-wing) to take them to Carles Puigdemont's rally in Argelès-sur-Mer, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, 200 kilometers further north, the atmosphere is like a pilgrimage and the average age around 60.
The former president of the Catalan government is still the subject of an arrest warrant in Spain for disobedience and misappropriation of public funds, for the October 2017 secession attempt. He is nevertheless a candidate to be "restored" as head of the Catalan government, following the early regional elections held on Sunday, May 12. As he waits for the final vote on the amnesty law – granted by Pedro Sanchez's minority Spanish government in exchange for support for his vote of investiture for the seven Junts MPs – the 61-year-old pro-independence leader meets his voters in France, every evening at 7pm.
"Nearly 10,000 people from all over Catalonia have made the trip since the campaign began, and we expect to reach 15,000," Ramon Bacardit, a local Junts councilor said enthusiastically. The trip is free, donations are recommended. "The amnesty has revitalized us," explained 62-year-old Lluisa Tulleuda, leader of Junts in Manresa. Without the prospect of Mr. Puigdemont's return, we wouldn't be in such a strong position to win: a lot of people have been demobilized recently." More than six years after moving to Belgium to avoid prosecution by the Spanish justice system, Puigdemont has pledged to return if elected.
While the latest polls give the advantage to the Catalan Parti Socialiste (PSC), its candidate, former health minister Salvador Illa, currently lacks the support needed to form a majority in the Catalan Parliament. Junts, for its part, has narrowed the gap and aspires to a possible repeat of a pro-independence government with the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), currently in power in the region, as was the case at the start of the legislature.
"According to our internal polls, we're tied with the Socialists at 38 seats [out of 125]," a Junts member announced into the microphone, to much applause. Political news is the talk of the town on such topics as the rise of the small far-right pro-independence party, Aliança Catalana, which threatens to fragment the pro-independence vote and create a political stalemate; the ERC's much-criticized handling of the drought; and Pedro Sanchez's threat to resign in response to attacks and the opening of an "influence peddling" investigation against his wife. "He tried to make the Catalan election campaign Spanish by putting on a show about his personal problems," said David Saldoni, a candidate on the Junts list.
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