The '100,000 children of Puigdemont' exceed the 1.3M contribution to the Waterloo coffers

At 10 am on Monday, October 11, the Consell per the Republic reached 100,000 registered.Three circumstances have helped reach the figure, among them, the arrest of Carles Puigdemont.This aulic organ created by the 'expressor' aims to be the condenser element of Catalan independence placed at the service of it.In it, it accommodated small group and matches to make visible a supposed plurality (in reality, almost all the groups that integrate it have been presented to the elections under the acronym of Junts per Catalunya).Neither the CUP nor ERC are part of the organ nor have they participated in their management.

The Consell has survived these years with more or less high.Puigdemont's intention was to get a million affiliates during the first months, that is, approximately half of the sovereign votes in Catalonia.But after three years with an intense proselytizing campaign, he has only managed to reach 100,000 registered, the tenth of his forecasts.

Cisma en el Consell per la República: ERC se planta ante PuigdemontAntonio Fernández. Barcelona

But that relative failure does not remove so that, deep down, the ‘invention’ of the Consell has been a source of income for the escape.Each affiliate has to pay at least 10 euros to be a member, which means that, since its constitution, only in affiliation installments, Puigdemont has entered a million euros.And that without saying that there are militants who have contributed more of that amount and companies that have contributed with generous stipends.In the successive fundraising campaigns, Waterloo's income through the Consell per the Republic has been at least 1,350,000 euros, although periodic annual amounts that some militants make to ‘the cause’ are unknown.Everything that involves Puigdemont, especially if it is financing and numbers, is wrapped in mystery.

From that total figure, 350,000 euros come from the income from the sale of the document of ‘Republican Identity’, another invention of the 'Expresident' to get funds from under the stones.There are no official figures of the IDs sold by Puigdemont, although in July about 20,000 had already been distributed, after payment of 12 euros per unit, as well as 2,500 digital.Of the total physical documents sold, those corresponding to the militants already registered were about 15,000.But there were more than 5,000 new militants who bought the card and had to pay, in addition to the 12 euros referenced, another 10 of the quota.

7,100 affiliates since April

At the moment, with 100,000 registered, more than 7,100 affiliates have been registered since the beginning of the sale of carnes, which has meant an important stimulus for the water accounts of Waterloo: only of the new registered, Puigdemont could have enteredSince April 156,000 euros, to which we must add the sales of carnés to the already registered: until the early of July, 195,000 euros were pocketed for the sales of the document to activists already affiliated with the Consell, but the data of the data ofThe last three months, so these estimates fall short.

The Consell business, although not buoyant, does force Puigdemont to make newspapers adjustments in their strategy.When affiliations to the Aulic organ were practically stagnant, he devised the card to revitalize them.The departure to the document, on April 6, was a revulsion: the same day that it occurred, the affiliations went from 20 to 263;On the 7th, there were 466, and on 8, 295. The following days, the registrations were around 200 new daily and on April 14, the day of the Republic, the Consell reached 95,130 registered.In just over a week, it achieved more than 2,200 new income.

Puigdemont vende carnés de su república catalana a 12 euros la unidad A. Fernández. Barcelona

The sale of a DNI was a business in which his friend Josep Maria Matamala (whom he put in the lists for the Senate by Girona) had experience of decades: the family bookstore of Los Matamala sells Catalan identity cards for 40years.It is an identity document designed by the priest Josep Dalmau in 1981 that was distributed from Llibreria Les Voltes: “The earth is sacred.Traitor who dares desecrate it ”, says a‘ decalogue of the Catalan nationalist ’on his reverse.Another of the legends says: “You do not serve the enemies of your people.They are enemies of all the peoples of the world. ”Its price was six euros.

Puigdemont adapted the design to the parameters of a current ID and raised the price to 12 euros, although if the citizen wanted a ‘digital card’ (and not physical) his cost fell to six euros.At that time, early April 2021, the Consell had 92,900 affiliates.And the 'expressor' put as a condition to obtain the card that the citizen had to register in the Consell per the Republic.In that way, any affiliate could obtain the document in exchange for 12 euros, but one that was not registered had to pay 22 euros.An economic and political business, since thus swelled at the same time the militancy of the organ.

In July, the Consell admitted that he had sold 20,000 physical and 2,500 digital cards.The affiliations, however, had only increased by 5,167 activists until July 9, which implies that the rest of the cards had distributed among militants already registered.Since then, the interest in registering drastically, to the point that from July 9 to September 19 they had only requested about 700 Catalans.

Detention triggers affiliations

In September, Puigdemont devised another helm: on the 19th of that month, the Consell officially convened elections to the representative table, which aims to be a parallel parliament in which only independence candidates are admitted.Both the CUP and ERC have been ostensibly unmarked from that exclusive organ of half of the Catalans, but for the 'expressident' it is the reference organ of secessionism.The day before the announcement of the 'elections' (which will be on October 29, 30 and 31), the number of requests grew to 98 and remained in several tens the following days.

La Generalitat paga un sueldo a la jefa de prensa en la sombra de Carles Puigdemont Marcos Lamelas. Barcelona

But then another revulsion of the situation came: the arrest of Carles Puigdemont in Sardinia on September 23.Since the arrest, in just a couple of weeks, there were 1,150 high in the Consell, a figure much higher than the previous two and a half months.In monetary terms, revenues in the last week of September and the first of October were 25,000 euros.

Interestingly, between September 24 and 30 there was no registration, that is, during the week that Puigdemont focused its activity in Sardinia.But on October 1, anniversary of the illegal referendum, there were 411 high suddenPuigdemont and coinciding with the final stretch of the presentation of the candidacies to the representative table: on October 3, for example, there were 103 highs;On October 4, another 126, and on October 5, 118. From then on, they went down, although no less than 27 affiliations until October 10.The arrest of Sardinia, then, meant a new revulsion for the Consell per the Republic, but, especially, for Waterloo bank accounts.