Harmê Bertram de Asra, leader of the National Artists’ Guild.
After much speculation, the acting leader of the National Artists’ Guild, Harmê Bertram de Asra, has rejected claims of a “popular consultation” on a possible merger between the Guild and the Left Alliance to form a “leftist superfront” at the Guild’s second-ever all-party congress, to be held on the Guild’s second anniversary on August 26. In the past few weeks, important politicians from both parties have pointed at the possibility of a merger following the Artists’ leadership meltdown last month, in which former interim leader Sno Jens-Galieri resigned from his position.
Bertram, a staunch supporter of former Prime Minister Shounn Virny, has reportedly been against as much as a co-operation agreement with the Left, which became the second-largest party in Parliament in the last election. The Artist leader denounced “interferences and attacks” from the Leftist leadership and Artist dissidents, including Gonn Governor Suipom Goyo, and Alios Mayor Étienne Boulin, who left the pink party last month in protest against the new Virnyist leadership.
The “interferences and attack” refer to invitations by Left Alliance chief and Leader of the Opposition, Apollo Cerwyn, to disenfranchised members of the Artists’ Guild to join the Left.
As per the party statute, a new leadership with an actual mandate is to be elected in the next party congress, and things are looking grim for Bertram and her team. The party’s membership has shrunk since the year’s start, and the legacy of Virny’s controversy-ridden second term still lives on.
The SiV Phonograph 