Together for Catalonia yesterday finished clarifying the cloud of mystery surrounding the formation's candidacy for the May 12 parliamentary elections. Former councilor Josep Rull, president of the national council for post-convergence training, will be number three on the list led by Carles Puigdemont and the strong man in the candidacy.
The former holder of Territory and Sustainability, who was taken by the process on 1-O, but is now free of disqualification sentences after the reform of the Penal Code, appeared in all passages from the first moment. In fact, it had been said that he could have been the candidate in the event that Puigdemont could not stand in the Catalan elections. In front will be the businesswoman Anna Navarro, an independent profile linked to the economic field and new technologies, and behind the still president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, who was also placed in the noble positions of the candidacy.
The director of the post-convergents campaign, Albert Batet, who has been president of the parliamentary group in recent years, will be the fifth and for the first time to appear in the regional elections on the list of Barcelona instead of that of Tarragona. After him is the writer Ennatu Domingo, who was already on Junts lists in a discreet place in 2021, although she is not linked to the organic life of the party, and the spokesperson and vice president of JxCat, Josep Rius, who, like Batet, is a leader close to Puigdemont. He was his chief of staff at the Palau de la Generalitat.
Judith Toronjo, a young profile, already a member of parliament in the previous legislature, will be in eighth place and fellow parliamentarian Glòria Freixa completes the first ten places, among which another independent has entered, the historian Agustí Colomines, who from jove was secretary to PSUC leader Josep Benet and in recent years has been linked to the convergent and post-convergent world. He was president of the CatDem foundation – formerly Trias Fargas – and was close to ex-president Artur Mas and ideologue of the concept of the great house of Catalanism. He then held a high position in Puigdemont's executive and continued to be linked to the former Catalan president.
The former councilor for Economy and Finance, Jaume Giró, is in eleventh place and also former councilor Lourdes Ciuró, who was head of Justice, is on the Barcelona list. Former councilor Lluís Puig, who has also moved from Brussels to Northern Catalonia and has been a remote deputy for the past three years, is in thirteenth position. The list is closed by the ex-convergent mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias, who in the municipal elections of last May prevailed in the contest for the Catalan capital, although he was unable to govern.
Apart from this, MPs from the previous legislature such as David Saldoni, Joan Canadell, Mercè Esteve or Francesc Dalmases, and also the leader of Democrates de Catalunya, Toni Castellà, are again in the candidacy.
Who will not be on the list is Aurora Madaula, who denounced the parliamentary group, and another parliamentarian related to Laura Borràs such as Ester Vallès. So, the president of the party will only have a prominent place with Dalmases and the secretary of organization, David Torrents, who is beyond the twentieth place. Her environment, however, highlights the alignment of the training president with independent profiles.
In Lleida, Girona and Tarragona the second positions are also occupied by independents, as in Barcelona. Ignasi Prat, Carme Renedo and Jordi Bertran respectively, and repeat deputies such as Anna Feliu, Jordi Fàbrega, Maite Selva, Jordi Munell or Quim Calatayud, Irene Negre and others in more discreet positions, as is the case of Francesc Ten.
The national council of JxCates will meet today in Elna to ratify the lists that were validated yesterday by the party's executive and there will also be a meeting where a large influx of militants is expected, as happened when the former president announced his candidacy, which is presented under the umbrella of Junts Puigdemont per Catalunya.
Although the formation signed an agreement with seven minor organizations, on paper, the only one that presents itself in coalition with JxCat is Democrates, the party that brings together the sovereignists of Unió Democràtica de Catalunya.
On the other hand, sources from the formation communicated yesterday that Puigdemont has fixed his residence in the south of France, in Northern Catalonia, in the region of Vallespir. In this way, the former president's return, which he announced a few weeks ago, to go to an eventual investiture debate will not take place from Waterloo, but from Northern Catalonia, a few kilometers from the border.
The former Catalan president changed his residence this Easter and left the country of Belgium, to which he has yet to return to go to a plenary session of the European Parliament. In any case, the leader of JxCat has decided to put everything on the grid for the parliamentary elections and will not repeat as a member of the European Parliament.
