Editorial: El País

• Oriol Junqueras has returned to the presidency of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) after a series of poor results that culminated in the loss of the Generalitat by the independentist party.
• Junqueras now faces the challenge of forming a leadership team that can respond to future needs, not just those of the militants. He needs to consider the slight programmatic differences between the candidacies.
• He needs to seek cooperation with the alternative candidacy to avoid internal warfare or a split.
• The failure of the procés and the profound change in the Catalan political and social climate require a strong grounding in reality from Junqueras.
• The question of whether to collaborate or not with the governments of Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain was another key point in the ERC's internal campaign. Junqueras and his rivals have suggested that the base decide future investments and support for the Generalitat's budget.
• The challenge is that in a divided party like the ERC, calling elections in the short term can be risky, as it could become a new plebiscite on Junqueras's continuity.

Conclusion: It is crucial that the new direction of the ERC is aware of the enormous challenges facing Catalan and Spanish institutions and to prioritize mending the party before organizing new elections that may lead to more instability.

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