"Gent de debò" is the motto with which Junts per Catalunya begins a long pre-campaign for the municipal elections, when there is just under half a year left for those elections. The formation has set itself the objective of presenting a candidacy in more than 800 municipalities of the 947 that exist in Catalonia and already having half of the candidates closed before the end of the year.
With all the machinery already greased, the party will hold a municipal convention outside Barcelona at the end of January to pay for the land, and it is possible that another will be repeated in April, when D-Day approaches.
In the 2019 elections, still hand in hand with PDECat, the JxCat candidacies were the ones that added the most mayoralties, although it was not the political party that added the most votes. Among the objectives of the party, which must be consolidated at the local level in this appointment with the polls after the first few years full of turbulence and tensions, is to repeat that milestone.
For the May 2023 elections, Junts will prioritize pacts to avoid project confrontation with other forces in the post-convergent space. In fact, in this last year a meticulous job has been done and many of the PDECat mayors who at first did not make the transition to JxCat when the divorce between the heirs of Convergència and Waterloo occurred in September 2020 have been doing gradually in these months with various formulas of entente.
In some cases they have broken the PDECat card and have gone to Junts –like Marc Buch in Calella (Maresme)–, in others they have chosen not to present themselves again or through agreements with already established brands –they are working on it in cities like Tortosa, Igualada, Figueres or Martorell–. "Closing candidacies for the municipal elections is microsurgery," said David Saldoni, head of municipal politics at Junts and deputy to the general secretary, on Thursday.
The truth is that there was a moment of impasse and uncertainty after the abrupt departure of Junts from the Government at the beginning of October and in the PDECat it was read that it was an opportunity to revive its space, but the group has continued with its discreet work since then and has continued to confirm candidates. In this sense, the proposal that the party made yesterday to the Executive of Pere Aragonès to agree on the budgets helps to set course and direction and convince with his project, say JxCat sources.
In the congress that JxCat held in the summer, it was reflected in the presentations that there will be freedom for the candidates when weaving post-electoral alliances, although the agreement with other pro-independence parties should always be prioritized and this Thursday Saldoni, who is a deputy and former mayor of Sallent , has placed special emphasis on that freedom to reach agreements.
"The idea is that the people who present themselves for Junts can work with the freedom that is required in each municipality. The municipalities are not uniform, although the parties tend to think of uniformity," Saldoni pointed out. The common point, he has said, must be the "will to transform, govern well and be loyal to the agreements that are adopted."
As far as provincial capitals are concerned, Lleida was the first to do its homework, in June, with the election of Toni Postius, current first deputy mayor in the city and former member of Congress. In July it was the turn of Tarragona, with Jordi Sendra, and this Friday the assembly of Girona meets, with the former Minister of Research and Universities Gemma Geis as the clear favourite.
In Barcelona, everyone is still waiting for the designs of the convergent former mayor Xavier Trias, who this week once again demanded autonomy for his project and that they let him do whatever he wants. Although he has not taken the step, it is taken for granted that he will be the candidate –his name was mentioned even before Elsa Artadi's resignation, but especially from the day after the former vice president of Junts resigned from leading the project–, and Other names have been leaking for the list that will follow, such as the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Government Obert, Victòria Alsina, the former Minister of Territory and Sustainability Damià Calvet, also former president of the Port of Barcelona in addition to the current councilors of training, Neus Munté and Jordi Martí and the former Minister of Health Josep Maria Argimon if he does not accept other job offers that come to him, some abroad.
Anyway, although Trias does not announce his candidacy, he has rolled up his sleeves and in the last few weeks has presented candidates all over the Catalan territory and goes where they ask. He was in El Prat de Llobregat with Gerard Valverde; in Granollers with Àlex Sastre, in Mataró with Alfons Canela, in Sabadell with Lluís Matas and in Manresa with Ramon Bacardit.
For the metropolitan area of Barcelona - in the first crown Junts only has one councillor, David Torrents, current secretary of organization, in Badalona - a specific team has been created with the former mayor of Cerdanyola del Vallès and former delegate of the Generalitat in Barcelona, Toni Morral, the ex-mayor of Molins de Rei and president of training in the Vegería of Barcelona, Joan Ramon Casals, and Isidre Sierra, mayor of Sant Climent de Llobregat and representative of training in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. Another of the party's objectives is to grow in a favorable territory for the PSC and which Esquerra has also marked as key on its map.
JxCat wants to obtain representation in the town halls of Sant Boi de Llobregat, Cornellà de Llobregat, Sant Adrià del Besòs, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, el Prat de Llobregat or Santa Coloma de Gramenet. In all these councils, the training does not include councillors.
The pre-campaign that Junts started this Thursday is expected to last until February and even until March. In between, in February, the trial of the president of the formation, Laura Borràs, is scheduled for alleged splitting of contracts to favor a friend when she was president of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (ILC). This matter will mark the political news in the pre-election period almost certainly due to the consequences that the sentence may have.
