The freshly elected national coordination of Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV), Marta Ribas and David Cid, closed the 11th ICV National Assembly this weekend, which was attended by 650 delegates from all over Catalonia.
The message of this Assembly was focused on their political reality. According to the plan of the current Catalan government there should be a disconnect from the Spanish government within 15 months from now, a vision which is not shared by the ICV. “Starting today, we will work towards winning the next elections in Catalonia. We will do so from a large political space which is clearly Green, leftist, feminist and built in a bottom-up fashion”, said Marta Ribas in her closing speech. David Cid added that the eco-socialists are holding the dream of their origin party, PSUC, in the palm of their hands, namely to build a great Catalan party that will never fold to the hegemony of the right. During his speech, he highlighted that ICV wants to win in order to govern and will not give up on the referendum as a political tool to solve the conflict in Spain without forgetting the fight against inequality and for sustainable development.
On the whole, the new coordination of ICV has pledged to “more than ever” strengthen the addition and confluence strategy in order to enlarge and stabilize a solid political alternative that aims at social justice, radical democracy, a Green transformation and feminism. “We have a responsibility to make it happen, and as we have seen this weekend, it is a shared responsibility and ambition between us and other forces”. There is a need for a real change in the Spanish government.
The Assembly this weekend also served as an opportunity to set the path for the new leadership with the overwhelming support of 97% of the Assembly as well as the new Executive Committee, which is the team that will lead the daily organisation of the ICV. The National Council, which is the highest decision-making body was also renewed during the Assembly.
The Assembly also approved 16 resolutions, which includes most notably the need to promote the Catalan Referendum. Ribas stated: “We have a solid and stable position on the fact that we want to restore common sense in our country, something that is supported by the majority of our population”. She also detailed that the resolution meant the creation of an International Pro-Referendum Committee in Catalonia. “The only solution is a legal and agreed referendum”, Cid added. In the same train of thought a resolution was approved that advocates the official status of both the Catalan and Spanish languages, as it claims language is a tool of social cohesion. They rejected the proposal of the group of linguistics that advocate Catalan as the only official language.
Notably the Assembly also approved a resolution for climate change. It calls for maximum citizenship participation together with the institutions, especially the local ones, in order to implement the COP21 Agreements. Thus, recognizing the requirement to not only support them, but also to move past them to achieve better results.
We, the European Green Party, wish ICV the very best as they continue forward and try to achieve the goals they have set for themselves during the Assembly.