Former president of FC Barcelona and member of the Catalan parliament, Joan Laporta, yesterday officially announced his decision to stand in the upcoming municipal elections in Barcelona together with the left-wing independence party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) (read article in Catalan here, Avui). Although Laporta co-founded the party Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència last year, with which he won his parliamentary seat, he has now separated from this group and formed a new entity, Democràcia Catalana. It is with this group that he has entered into a coalition with the municipal group of ERC in Barcelona, headed by Jordi Portabella, who will be running for mayor of the city in the May 22nd elections. Laporta will now run as the number two candidate on the Barcelona list for ERC. During the official presentation of the agreement yesterday, both Laporta and Portabella said that the thinking behind the union was to maintain the spirit of the demonstration held in Barcelona last year on July 10th, which called on the right of Catalans to decide for themselves whether or not to be an independent nation following the decision of the Spanish Constitutional Court to make important changes to the new Catalan Statute of Autonomy (which had been previously accepted by both the Catalan and Spanish parliaments and by Catalunya residents in a referendum). This morning, however, speaking on Catalunya Radio, Laporta surprised listeners by saying that he didn't rule out making a move for a seat in the Spanish parliament, the Congreso de los Diputados.