Government crisis in Girona: Junts leaves the pro-independence coalition with Guanyem and ERC

GironaTen months before the next municipal elections, the pro-independence tripartite that governed Girona since 2023 has come to an end. After a harsh article published on Sunday, in which the deputy mayor and candidate for re-election for Junts, Gemma Geis, had already anticipated that her "patience" had run out, the party of Carles Puigdemont has made the decision to leave the executive and move to the opposition. Geis announced this Tuesday morning at a press conference, accompanied by the party's six councilors. "Our degree of demand is very high and Girona deserves more," she stated.

The decision comes after weeks in which the tensions between the government partners have only increased, coinciding with the start of the electoral countdown. In this way, it ends, the Girona exception to the pro-independence unity, in which Guanyem Girona (a party integrated by the CUP), Junts and ERC joined forces to oust the victory in votes for the socialist Sílvia Paneque in the last municipal elections and make Lluc Salellas mayor.

For Geis, however, trust has run out and the last straw is that different demands from his group "have not been heard". It is not a single red line, but a list of issues that, when added together, have precipitated the decision. The Junts mayoral candidate has listed issues related to the future of the Josep Trueta Health Campus, municipal brigades, cleaning, social services, human resources, public street maintenance, or a moratorium on shops. He has also denounced the lack of response capacity, the "personalism" of the mayor's figure, and Guanyem's refusal to give more governmental responsibilities to Junts.

The latest disagreement within the government has arisen from the Truffaut cinema case, which has announced today that it is suspending its service, pending the resolution of the appeal filed by the Collective of Critics against the result of the public tender that causes them to lose management. According to Junts, this is an example of the internal management problems of the City Council.

Geis, likewise, has wanted to boast about the work done during these three years. "We entered to govern out of responsibility, to give stability to the city and prevent the Socialist Party from governing with a Hispanist agenda. During all this time we have practiced the theory of the landing to reach agreements, we have fulfilled, we have approved three budgets, we have inaugurated the Santa Eugènia police station, we have managed the eviction of Tomàs Mieres and we have recovered publicly owned housing occupied irregularly", he said.

Salellas values the work of the tripartite

Lluc Salellas, for his part, during the last plenary session on Monday night, defended the municipal government, "put the work done" by the tripartite coalition "in value" and assured that it was "the best option" to continue governing during the next year. Guanyem argues that, in a context of declining linguistic rights and a crisis of Catalan, the Girona pro-independence coalition was doing a great job. At the same time, Salellas's party claims the policies promoted in terms of housing, the new Health Campus, and school pacifications. For Geis, on the other hand, more "management capacity and future vision" are needed to face the challenges arising from "the demographic crisis" and calls for transforming the organization of the City Council to improve citizen services.

Despite going hand in hand in the governing coalition, the way of working of the three parties, with fundamental ideological differences, has been very autonomous. Especially in the area of Economic Promotion, which was controlled by Geis's party. The first clash occurred two years ago, due to the city's tourism model, turned into a benchmark destination for cycle tourism. But it was from the autumn of last year, when the change of course in Junts' discourse – which some associate with the growth of Aliança Catalana – multiplied disagreements with Guanyem. Salellas's party ended up accepting that security would set the council's agenda and also that the municipal register would no longer be automatic and immediate, establishing a three-month period to review new registrations.

Will Paneque be a candidate again?

With the departure from the municipal government, Junts is focusing on the upcoming elections, in a context where the other party in the coalition, ERC, has been campaigning from the outside for some time under the banner of Moviment Gironí. The project is led by the former mayor of Sant Julià de Ramis, Marc Puigtió, who won the primaries by a single vote in an open war within the republican party and has not hesitated to criticize the government's management, even though the republicans continue to be part of it, with Quim Ayats at the helm. "We will offer responsible opposition, without theatrics, not like the Socialist Party has done. We will evaluate all proposals that are good for Girona," Geis clarified.

The cards of the main candidates for the municipal elections in Girona in May 2027 are already on the table, except for that of the PSC. It is pending whether the government spokesperson and Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, confirms if she will leave the Catalan executive and run again as a candidate. The socialists' main fear is to win again, but not be able to form a coalition to govern, as happened to them in 2023. These will also be the first elections with a clear candidate from Aliança Catalana, which opened an office in Girona a month ago and officially presented Marc Villafañe as head of list.