Laporta to lead his own political party

After several months of uncertainty, the former president of FC Barcelona,Joan Laporta, has confirmed through his website that he’ll run for president of Catalonia. With his seven years of unprecedented success at the front of the “unarmed army” of Catalonia (to quote M.V. Montalban), he is determined ”to devote his energy to a challenge that, if achieved, will ensure a better quality of life for all citizens who live and work in Catalonia”.
His first step has been to create a new party, called Democràcia Catalana (Catalan Democracy), which he describes as Catalan, democratic, humanist, progressive, and an advocate of both individual and collective human rights, which will gather citizens from all walks of life with different profiles and backgrounds, and who share the premise that in the twenty-first century (and within the framework of the European Union) there’s no reason why Catalonia cannot be become a Member State of the EU.
Nobody knows to what extent Laporta can change the outcome of the next Catalan elections, but it will surely influence the political debate during the campaign, focusing it on the pros and cons of the independence of Catalonia. And despite recent polls suggesting that he wouldn’t obtain enough votes to win a seat in the Catalan parliament, his enormous popularity and straightforward arguments together with his charm and determination will likely have an impact on the results of ERC and CiU as well as on the PSC’s and even IC’s. Only time will tell whether his jump to politics is positive for the pursuit of independence, but, as of now, it basically looks positive.