Oriol Junqueras: “If Spain shutters Catalan Parliament, that will mean we’ve already won”

On Monday afternoon, Oriol Junqueras—president of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), and leader of the opposition in the Catalan Parliament—was gracious enough to answer our questions about the Catalan process towards independence, in English on Twitter. The interview carries the #CatalanTalk hashtag.

Junqueras’ ERC party—founded in 1931—is currently the second largest force in the Catalan Parliament, holding 21 seats out of 135. It has steadfastly supported the CiU coalition (50 seats) since the two signed the Governability Pact of 2012, in which they agreed to hold a referendum on the independence of Catalonia.

Junqueras is also a historian and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and the mayor of the small town of Sant Vicenç dels Horts. Until 2012, he was a Member of the European Parliament for ERC.

Here is a transcript of the interview:

The chat is translated into Catalan (#CatalanTalkCA), Spanish (#CatalanTalkES), French (#CatalanTalkFR), and German (#CatalanTalkDE), and compiled editions can be read in Catalan, Spanish, French, and German on Spotify. Many thanks to translators Rodolf Gimeno, Esther Roig, Patrick Roca Batista, and Monika Ferré Jordà, respectively!

For a calendar of upcoming #CatalanTalk interviews, consult our calendar.