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 has governed Girona since 2023 has come to an end. After a harsh article on Sunday in which the deputy mayor and Junts candidate for re-election, Gemma Geis, had already anticipated that her “patience” had run out, Carles Puigdemont's party has decided to leave the executive and move to the opposition. Geis will explain the reasons this morning, at 11:15 a.m., at a press conference. The decision comes after weeks in which tensions between the government partners have only increased and are beginning to put pressure on the electoral calendar. This is how the Girona exception of pro-independence unity comes to an end, in which Guanyem Girona (a party that includes the CUP), Junts, and ERC joined forces to oust the victory in votes of the socialist Sílvia Paneque in the last municipal elections and make Lluc Salellas mayor.

The decision comes just after the last municipal plenary session with Junts in government was held on Monday, and after three years of the legislature in which the three pro-independence parties have approved all budgets. For Geis, the last straw is that different demands from her group "have not been heard", including actions to resolve maintenance problems on public roads. In this way, the electoral button is pressed, in a context in which the other party in the coalition, ERC, has been campaigning from the outside for some time under the banner of Moviment Gironí. It 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 formation.

During the last plenary session, Salellas defended the municipal government, highlighted "the work done" by the tripartite and assured that it is "the best option" to continue it in the coming year. Guanyem argues that in a context of regression of linguistic rights and a crisis of Catalan, the Girona pro-independence coalition was doing a great job. However, at the same time, Salellas's party defends the direction of housing policies, the new Health Campus, and school pacifications. For Geis, on the other hand, more "management capacity and vision for the future" is 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 working together in the governing coalition, the way the three parties have worked over these three years has been very autonomous. Mainly, from the Economic Promotion area, which was controlled by Geis's party. It was from the autumn of last year that the change of direction in Junts's discourse — which some associate with the growth of Aliança Catalana — multiplied the disagreements with Guanyem. Salellas's party ended up accepting that security would set the council's agenda, and it has also been established that the municipal register will not be automatic and instantaneous, but rather that there will be a three-month period for its review. Meanwhile, hand in hand with ERC, Puigtió has not refrained from censoring the government's management despite the fact that the Republicans are part of it with Quim Ayats at the helm, who is no longer running for re-election.

Will Paneque be a candidate again?

On the table are already the cards of the main candidates for the municipal elections in Girona in May 2027, except for the PSC's. It is pending that the government spokesperson and minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition confirms if she leaves the Catalan executive and runs again as a candidate. The socialists' main fear is to win again, but not be able to add up to govern, as happened to them in 2023. It 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 the list.