Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias (i) together with Junts President Laura Borràs (c) and Secretary General Jordi Turull (d) during an appearance in Barcelona last weekend. Quique García (EFE)
In Catalonia there is a political dispute that remains unresolved and that will have a new vision on March 28: the struggle for independence hegemony between Esquerra and Junts. It’s true that in local elections day-to-day affairs outweigh national politics, but at heart the two are inextricably linked. A race is therefore taking place both within the Republicans and under the leadership of the Borràs-Turull binomial, which begins today as another test of their strategies of dialogue with the government and total confrontation. Although the result in the metropolitan area is crucial for ERC, the fight with Junts will mostly focus on the interior areas. It will also be crucial who manages to win over the Ciudadanos voters who are left out in the polls. PSC, PP and Vox seem to be the target of these polls.
The Junts vs. ERC competition was previewed and Oriol Junqueras came out on top. The Republicans are the party with the most announced candidacies in the four Catalan border regions, with 804 electoral lists. Junts, which always took first place, stayed in second place with 728. ERC was able to present itself in all district capitals with almost no problems, while its competitors could not reach their goal of presenting themselves in 800 municipalities. The Socialists, on the other hand, submitted a total of 715 lists, 17% more lists than in 2019.
An unprecedented factor is that for the first time in a democracy, the Catalan executive is monochromatic and capitalized with ERC. The 28-M is seen by the government’s ex-partners Junts as a chance to heal the thorn following last October’s divorce. But both want to compete alongside the PSC for which party is credible as the best manager, and so the pre-campaign was all about attacking (and defending) the government’s (and the government’s) work. on issues such as attention to the drought or the fiasco of the Generalitat oppositions. And, in the spirit of independence, how the relationship with Madrid (collaboration or surrender, depending on who you speak to) affects the proper functioning of services like Rodalies.
Just last Sunday, over the rail chaos, the Junts Secretary-General Jordi Turull slammed the ERC for “disregarding unity and making it easy on whoever is causing the problem, which is the government.” It’s a speech, however is attenuated depending on the location. Xavier Trias, the Barcelona candidate, did not focus his speech on the attack on Pere Aragonès’ government. In places with more secessionist roots, like Girona, Republicans are under constant scrutiny. Aside from the Catalan capital, those of Carles Puigdemont are hoping to retain the post of mayor previously held by Marta Madrenas.
One is the lists, the other the results. Esquerra is looking to reconfirm the 2019 vote win (822,107, 23%) and number of councilors elected (3,114). These are very good figures compared to those of the 2015 elections (510,080 votes and 2,380 voters). he had already recovered from the post-tripartite debacle. But despite such a big comeback, in the last election it was the neoconvergents who won the most mayorships (369 to 359 Republicans), most of them in small inland communities.
Junts are trusted that a good result in the Catalan capital will allow them to tip the scales in their favor this time around. In the municipal elections, the Neconvergents (557,303 votes and 2,798 councillors) were relegated to third place in percentage terms after the ERC and PSC (in second place with 768,478 votes and 87 mayors, but with a large population). After hearing about the announced candidatures himself, Turull tried to point out that after the previous contest’s pothole, they were again able to present lists in the 36 municipalities of the Barcelona metropolitan area.
What affects most is what happens closer. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything.
subscribe to
The competition between both formations will have three locations of particular interest. The polls are unflattering for Republicans in Lleida and Tarragona, two mayorships Republicans aspired to and crowned after years of socialist rule. This also gave them the key to the provincial government of both territories. The PSC, but also junts, believe it is possible that there will be a color change, which would deal a blow to the ERC discourse on how citizens have perceived “Republican governance”.
The other hot scene will be the metropolitan area, which focuses on Junqueras’ personal strategy to pierce the red stain smudgering the map. Bets like the search for Congress Speaker Gabriel Rufián in the Santa Coloma de Gramenet cartel are not consistent with wresting a mayoral seat from the PSC, but they are progressively undermining its hegemony. In addition to what is happening in the Catalan capital, the Socialists have almost secured hegemony in cities like L’Hospitalet, Cornellà, Sant Adrià or Mollet. While Junts is not a direct competitor to ERC, Carambola is. At Republican headquarters on Calle de Calàbria in Barcelona, they have no doubt that socio-vergence will occur where arithmetically possible.
From 2011 to 2019, ERC has grown from the fifth to the second largest force in the communities around the Catalan capital. From the 62,000 reached at the first appointment during this period, it rose to 292,000 four years ago. The dark cloud for Republicans is that there is little chance of Ernest Maragall winning in Barcelona, and they see the capital’s mayoral target moving away. There will be many readings on the evening of March 28 and they know that Junts will sell a bad result from the ERC as a complement to the overall commitment to dialogue with the government and management of Aragonès. At the ERC, for example, they believe that a no-win triad is the last straw that spills over Junts’ attempts to reconvert and that it affects what will happen to their President, Laura Borràs.
You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter