After being left out of the Congress of Deputies in the general elections and far from obtaining representation, the PDECat decided right after to open a reflection process that will culminate last summer with the holding of a congress. At that time, the future of the party will be decided, if the activity is maintained, if there is a refoundation or if the blind is lowered permanently.
The only thing that is clear today is that the formation of David Bonvehí, already without electoral rights for the generals, will not run in case there is a repetition of the elections in the coming months.
The heir party of Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya has remained as an extra-parliamentary force both in Parliament and in the Lower House in the last two years and now barely has a little more than 180 councilors obtained in the municipal elections on May 28 with the Ara coalition Local Pact.
It remains to be seen what is decided, but in the post-convergent formation they understand that the PDECat brand is exhausted, just like that of Espai CiU –not so the intention of bringing together various actors that were behind that name–, which has been used in the last electoral appointment. For this reason, sources consulted maintain that maintaining the space necessarily requires a refoundation that also leaves aside other projects that have been launched in recent years, such as Centrem – a party that emerged after a prior agreement between PDECat, Lliures, Convergents and Lliga Democràtica and was touched shortly after its founding by the resignation of its leader – or the Partit Nacionalista de Catalunya of Marta Pascal, which now collaborated with the PDECat-Espai CiU candidacy.
On the table there are various options, but what there is now is no urgency or rush. On the one hand, a structure can be maintained to support the municipal and supra-municipal groups that have been formed after the May 28 elections and endure. The formula of participating hand in hand with other forces could also be studied, as Units per Avançar does with the PSC, or else taking refuge in the local sphere and later trying to make the leap to other institutions. But all this requires a critical mass and people involved, warn training sources. The idea of bringing together the various brands that emerged when the CDC lowered the blind in 2016 and making a moderate nationalist and centrist political offer is still present, but we have to see what all this materializes in.
A third option would be to put the final closure and endure the minimum structure at the administrative level to face the cause of the 3% in the National Court, in which they are prosecuted as successors of CDC together with several former leaders of the party. All of this will be clarified at the September congress.
When making self-criticism, they consider that Roger Montañola's campaign was very good and that he was a good candidate and an asset that should not be lost, although they believe that perhaps they lacked a bit of national spirit and being a candidate more territorial, not only representative of Barcelona. And that there would be more emphasis on the social aspects of his program. "Perhaps we have gone ahead in time and it was not yet the time to make the speech that we have made," says one of the sources consulted.
On the economic level, training has been prudent in the last two campaigns and has tried not to incur debt, so it is not currently under pressure in this regard.
Former president Artur Mas, who continues to be a member of the party, has expressed his opinion that sooner or later the formation will end up integrated with Junts, a party that he has approached in recent months and which he supported in the general elections of 23 of July.
However, the bridges between those of Bonvehí and Jordi Turull, personal relationships aside, are not going through the best moment, especially after many of the mayors and councilors that the PDECat had retained in the municipal councils changed sides in the last moment despite the fact that in Barcelona there was communion around the figure of Xavier Trias. In fact, there is a better relationship with ERC and the PSC right now, since they have not had the friction and traumatic divorce, in some cases, that JxCat and PDECat have experienced, point out from the PDECat.
