Eva Baró will be the new president of the Barcelona ERC federation. The “La Barcelona de totes” candidacy, which is led by the councilwoman in the Catalan capital’s City Council, prevailed yesterday over that of “Horitzó Barcelona”, headed by the current Secretary General of Government Education, Patrícia Gomà . The results have been adjusted: 365 votes – 50% of the votes cast – for the first; 342 votes – 47% – for the second. Only 23 difference. Maximum division Just over a thousand militants were called to the telematic voting on Friday.
Baró has got away with the elections of one of the main federations of Esquerra. He will replace Gerard Gómez del Moral in the position. However, the national management will open a dialogue process to incorporate members of the other list into the regional executive. The party’s statutes require that this be the case as long as the winning option does not obtain more than 55% of the votes cast. Of the 15 members of the regional management, up to 4 should be on the losing list.
The new president belonged to the party’s national executive, a fact that has served as an excuse for rivals to consider her “continuist” or “officialist” and which Baró’s team denies. The candidacy has, among others, Joan Ignasi Elena, Minister of the Interior, the former Councilor Montse Benedí or the Member of Parliament José Rodríguez, and the endorsement of Carme Forcadell.
Gomà, on the other hand, has raised the flag of the “militancy” list, built “from the bottom up” and, although he assures that he is not “anti-junkerist”, he has been critical of the decision-making processes of the leadership national
In this sense, for example, Gomà has criticized that the pact to form part of the government of the Diputació de Barcelona with PSC and the communes was decided without consultation or prior notice to the bases. Baró, in fact, is one of the vice-presidents of the Provincial Council, so the idea is consolidated, according to “Horitzó Barcelona”, that her candidacy is related to the direction of Junqueras.
One of the issues that will surely be put on the table is the replacement of Ernest Maragall as a candidate for the next municipal elections for the Barcelona City Council. On this point there was no disagreement between the two candidacies.