Sánchez's allies inaugurate the legislature by attacking the King: "He has no legitimacy" and "is incompatible with democratic principles"

ERC, EH Bildu and BNG, three pro-independence formations allied and essential support of Pedro Sánchez's coalition government, inaugurate the legislature on the day of its solemn opening by Felipe VI, attacking the King and renouncing the parliamentary monarchy as the political form of the State.

In a statement issued just two hours before the Head of State inaugurates the new stage of the Cortes in a solemn ceremony in Congress, the three forces that declare themselves "independentist, sovereignist and republican" attack the monarchy as an "anachronistic institution, incompatible with essential democratic principles" for being a "hereditary and life-long institution".

They add that in the case of Spain, the anti-democratic character is accentuated by the fact that "it was imposed by the dictator Franco and was, to that extent, heir to Francoism". It is, therefore, they point out, a class that "does not respond to the republican values of freedom, equality and democracy".

ERC, Bildu and BNG maintain that true democracy in Spain will only be possible "from the rupture with the heritage, the bases and the values represented by the King and his figure" and advocate that the monarch stop "exercising his tutelage over the citizens and over the governments and parliaments. Just like that." They emphasize, "progress can be made in freedom and democracy."

"The Spanish monarchy and the King of Spain do not represent us," they say, before assuring that Catalan, Basque and Galician societies "mostly reject the figure of a monarchical institution that is linked to the objective of imposing the unity of Spain and its laws, thus denying the civil, political and national rights" of its peoples.

The three parties insist that "the democratic path to freedom" of their peoples is "a legitimate and non-extendable aspiration" and stress that "the Spanish king is not a valid interlocutor", "has no legitimacy" and, consequently, they do not recognise "any political function". They consider that their role in relation to Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia – "our nations", they say – "has been none other than to try to impose anti-democratic projects and values".