Junts per Catalunya will put all the meat on the grill in the municipal elections next May and in this operation the party's candidate in Barcelona, Xavier Trias, monopolizes the spotlight and has a lot to say. This Saturday, at a municipal party convention held in Girona, he stated that to win it is "essential" that people love you, but he also stressed that it is very important that there be behind "a strong party" that "will put up with you and push yourself in difficult moments".
For now, the wind from the polls is blowing in favor of Trias, who is trying to project himself as an alternative to Ada Colau and was mayor between 2011 and 2015. He sees himself as capable of winning because, as he has remarked, "Barcelona is a mess", but the veteran leader has pointed out that it is also necessary for Junts, although it began as a movement, to become "a strong and consistent party that does not do nonsense". "That is very important," he remarked.
Today was the first major event of Junts in which Trias participated, since in the training congress that took place in summer, although her name was already on everyone's lips after the resignation of Elsa Artadi, she was not Present; neither in Argelers nor in the second phase, in l'Hopistalet de Llobregat. However, after approving the Junts road map in the second city of Catalonia, in mid-July, at the closing of the conclave, a part of the leaders present chanted his name when the general secretary, Jordi Turull, set the contest for Barcelona as a primary objective.
Beyond the importance that Trias has for the mere fact of being the candidate of the Catalan capital, his figure within the party has also gained weight after the departure of JxCat from the Government. The same day that the rupture of the coalition Executive with Esquerra Republicana was announced, after the consultation, Turull expressed, as if it were a balm – at least for the most pragmatic sector – that the convergent former mayor had offered his collaboration. In addition, there are many municipal candidates who have asked him to participate in their particular starting signal for the municipal pre-campaign. Even before confirming –in December– that he would be Junts number one in Barcelona, he could be seen in cities like Sabadell, Manresa, Granollers, El Prat de Llobregat or Mataró along with the heads of the list. This Sunday, tomorrow, he will be in Sant Cugat del Vallès and he has to go to Lleida, Reus, Sant Sadurní d'Anoia or Torrelavit.
Today, Trias held a dialogue with the Junts candidate for mayor of Girona, former Minister Gemma Geis, in which they described their city model in different areas and contrasted the strategy of their space with the Barcelona by Ada Colau on issues such as security, cleanliness, the fight against poverty or tourism, among other issues. "There is no freedom without security," said Geis, who has also called for the recovery of values, such as respect and care for the elderly. In this sense, Turull has announced in his subsequent speech that they are preparing public policies to alleviate issues such as unsought loneliness.
It was in this colloquium with Geis that the former convergent leader, who has claimed to have Carles Puigdemont's request for him to accept being the candidate, has made his considerations on the course that JxCat should take – in autumn he was critical of the departure of the Government–, and has asked that the formation, rather than the "big house" as it had been said in the Convergència era –that of Artur Mas–, be a "pal de paller" (prop), "since the house has walls", Trias pointed out, to say right after that we must try to get a lot of people to come. "We will like some more and others less, as happens in families," he added.
"I have introduced myself because Barcelona is a mess and because we can all help the game go forward and be strong, a true pal de paller. [...] We have to be strong and we are in a good moment to be strong ". Trias has concluded, who has also made self-criticism in the key of the party and has lamented that "there have been moments during which things have not been done well". In his opinion, this has generated a "sad and unfortunate feeling."
For his part, Geis pointed out that "in Barcelona it has become clear what happens when a city model is put into play", alluding to the change of command between Trias and Colau, and has conspired to improve the situation in Girona where They already govern with Mayor Marta Madrenas.
The closure of the Junts municipal convention, of the public acts, has been in charge of the president of the formation, Laura Borràs, and the general secretary, Turull, who has asked their candidates to "put" the interests of their peoples and cities to those of JxCat, although, as he has specified, as general secretary he "should not say so".
The former Minister of the Presidency has also charged against the Republicans, without explicitly referring to them and even at the risk of getting into "a hornet's nest", for having tried to convince candidates of his party in exchange for "roundabouts and swings", as he has said; and has asserted that Catalonia is at a "crossroads" in which the Government must decide whether to agree on the budgets with which they say that "the process is over" and that they offer "branching" and "more dependency", alluding to the socialists, or with those of the 52% and those who propose "independence and solvency", in reference to their space.
In turn, Borràs has pointed out that the ERC is a Government of "absolute minority and absolute incoherence", after the change of position of those of Oriol Junqueras and Pere Aragonès regarding the large projects, especially in reference to a section of the fourth belt, which is required by the PSC to approve the Catalan accounts for 2023.
For the municipal elections, the formation has set itself the objective of presenting at least 800 candidacies in the 947 municipalities that Catalonia has and sources from the formation assure that there are already around 500. In some areas such as Lleida or Penedès, agreements have been signed with local forces of the post-convergent orbit, whose leaders did not jump to Junts in 2020, such as Impulsem Lleida and Impulsem Penedès. Several mayors who stayed in the PDECat have also been gradually transitioning to JxCat in recent weeks or have closed agreements to run in a single candidacy, as is the case of Igualada, Marc Castells.
