For decades, when socio-vergence worked, the electoral division of the Catalan territory was not under discussion: the PSC ruled the metropolitan area (with some post-communist mayors) and CiU had its strongholds in the counties of the hinterland, with exceptions in some cities important, such as the socialist mayors of Girona and Lleida. Pujolism invaded the metropolitan area, once called the red belt, and this led Jordi Pujol, in 1987, when he had an absolute majority in Parliament, to liquidate the Metropolitan Corporation of Barcelona, which he saw as a counter-power of the Generalitat in the hands of the adversaries. They were times of Pujolism and Maragallism, and ERC did not count for much.
One of the most innovative approaches in the nationalist/sovereignty space came from the republicans when they pointed out as one of their strategic objectives the fact of growing in the metropolitan municipalities and questioning the socialist hegemony. The bet seemed doomed to failure. How dare pro-independence people ask the citizens of Catalonia to vote where Catalan nationalism was almost invisible? In the local elections of 2011, the ERC brand achieved a discreet 5.2% in the metropolitan belt, but in those of 2019, the fruits of the long work that its militants and cadres had done were reaped: it reached 19.8 %, data that gives the party led by Junqueras the status of the second most populous political force in Catalonia. The key: social discourse and listening to the street. And have the waist to exploit the errors of a PSC installed in excess of confidence.
In the May elections, ERC wants to take another step further. The election of the Republican spokesman in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, as mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet must be interpreted from this strategy. His candidacy transcends the local sphere and embodies the metropolitan vocation of independence that today governs the Generalitat and influences Madrid. Beating the vote percentage of four years ago in the red belt is not easy for ERC, but it has never had a better time than now to gain positions. On Aragonès' agenda, metropolitan municipalities are a priority, with visits seeking contact with neighborhood and social entities. Show waist also among those who do not vote for him.
In February, Xavier Trias made a public self-criticism of the metropolitan perspective that Pujols had had and stated that it is necessary to play decisively in this environment. Some Junts strategists trust that the Trias campaign will help their candidates for the first Barcelona belt. In 2019, the metropolitan vote in Junts was 10.17%, and in several cities it did not even get a councillor. we will see But this subject pending at CiU cannot be approved by Junts overnight, let alone from the opposition and trying to get their head out of the fierce duel that will be starring the PSC and ERC candidates.
