Several former Junts ministers who were in the Government until October will be on the lists for the municipal elections in May. But they will not be the only ones. In fact, Xavier Trias, the main figure of Junts per Catalunya in the next municipal elections, was minister before he was a candidate for mayor of Barcelona.
Gemma Geis, ex-head of Research and Universities, is number one in Girona and aspires to repeat the triumph she obtained four years ago at the hands of Marta Madrenas, who does not choose to revalidate the position. In Lleida, Violant Cervera, former councilor for Social Rights, will be number two and will form a tandem with Toni Postius, who is again the candidate, has served in Congress as a deputy and is part of the municipal government of Paeria. In turn, the ex-minister for External Action and Open Government, Victòria Alsina, will be on the Trias team.
To those three ex-councillors, who just left the Government -last October-, we must add the ex-counselor of the Presidency and exportavoz of the Catalan executive with Quim Torra, Meritxell Budó, who is the candidate for the mayor's office of La Garriga (Vallès Oriental), and to Damià Calvet, former head of Territory and Sustainability and former president of the Port of Barcelona, who will be on the list of Together in Barcelona, as will Neus Munté, who was councilor with Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont.
For the former vice president of the Government, Jordi Puigneró, the bickering had placed him as a candidate in his city, Sant Cugat del Vallès (Vallès Occidental), where he was a councilor and deputy mayor in the past and played a prominent role in the stage of Lluís Recoder and in that of Mercé Conesa. However, he himself, at the end of January, ruled out that option in an interview with the local media outlet Cugat Mèdia and made himself “available” to the Junts candidate in the city, Josep Maria Vallès. After that, there has been speculation about the possibility that he appears on his list with an eye on the Barcelona Provincial Council -Nació Digital reported it-, but the truth is that the former leader of JxCat in the Government has not yet made any decision about your future. At the moment, he has extended his leave from the IBM company for two years so as not to incur incompatibilities after being Minister of Digital Policies.
Another ex-minister, Jaume Giró, head of Economy and Hisenda, is also deeply involved in the municipal race, although he will not be part of any candidacy in the elections. In recent weeks he has accompanied candidates throughout the Catalan territory in various events.
Outside the Government of the Generalitat, in JxCat they consider that a lot is at stake in the municipal elections next May, the first local ones they have faced since they were constituted as a party in 2020.
In the leadership they are aware that it is necessary to take root in the territory for the party to endure and "be alive", although its brand in the Parliamentary elections of 2017 and 2021 obtained good results. In this sense, sources consulted recall that Ciudadanos became the first force in Parliament five years ago and is now fighting not to disappear, and that it is a formation that did not take care of the municipal sphere. Otherwise, they recall the journey of Convergència through the desert, at the time of the tripartites, in which the mayors of the party played an important role.
Thus, in the training they value positively that some of the ex-consellers, contrary to the departure of JxCat from the Catalan executive, are involved in the municipal ones. A fact that added to the agreements with the mayors of Impulsem Lleida and Impulsem Penedès – figures from the post-convergent space who did not give way to Junts at first – as well as some mayors who come from PDECat, such as Marc Castells in Igualada (Anoia). , goes along the lines of recoring the space and strengthening the party.
The formation set itself the objective of presenting 800 candidacies throughout Catalonia, of which it has already closed more than 500. The person in charge of this matter is the deputy David Saldoni, who was organization secretary with Jordi Sànchez and now as deputy to the general secretary, Jordi Turull, and leader of the Junts municipal policy, continues on that front.
