It is not the same to agree with the CUP as with Aliança Catalana

BarcelonaThursday's CEO survey predicts a bewildering municipal landscape ahead of the 2027 elections, where a new player is expected to make a strong entrance: the Catalan Alliance (AC). All eyes are on Junts, which has so far demonstrated absolute flexibility in its policy of forming pacts.

The residents of Vilobí del Penedès have had a minority Junts-CUP government for just over a month after ERC left the government. In contrast, in Calonge and Sant Antoni, in the Baix Empordà region, Junts is part of a government with the Socialists and Popular Party (PPP). This ideological flexibility of Junts, which the PSC also shares at the municipal level, is a kind of hallmark of Catalan politics. In Spain, where blogs are much more defined, this doesn't happen. And I suspect it doesn't happen in the rest of Europe either. In Catalonia, a kind of ideological polyamory is practiced, which in practice only excludes Vox. Everyone with everyone except the Spanish far right, which refers directly to the Franco dictatorship.

The emergence of AC

So the big question now is how it will affect AC's emergence in this political map of multiple relationships. Is it the same for a party like Junts to make a pact with the CUP as it is with Sílvia Orriols's party? How will the other parties react if the junts try to legitimize their relations with Alianza?

From the outset, it must be said that Junts' situation is very different from that of the PP, which would never consider pacts with an anti-capitalist party and, in practice, only has Vox as a possible partner. Juntos is clearly not a right-wing or center-right party, as the PP is, and ideological malleability has been part of its DNA since the days of Jordi Pujol. This flexibility, moreover, better adapts to the complex reality of the country, which is not like the black-and-white Spain of reds versus blues, but rather incorporates many more nuances thanks to the existence of the national axis and the consensus forged in the anti-Franco era. That's why Junts isn't penalized by its ability to reach agreements; on the contrary, its mayors represent what we might define as the party's pragmatic wing. But with Aliança, things get complicated because, while it identifies as Catalan nationalist and pro-independence, it challenges the historical Catalan consensus and the principle of one people. Junts' secretary general, Jordi Turull, called it "the anti-Catalonia." Therefore, is it possible to reach an agreement, even in a single municipality, with the anti-Catalonia?

Juntos will have to weigh the pros and cons carefully because if it breaks the cordon sanitaire, it will also be affecting its own DNA and the perception of the party by other political actors. In other words, for the CUP, ERC, or even the PSC, reaching an agreement with the current Junts party would not be the same as doing so with a Junts party that collaborates with AC. Because the brand's value will inevitably be affected. That's why reaching an agreement with the CUP is not the same as reaching an agreement with AC.

This week's details

Alícia Sánchez-Camacho's appearance before the Operation Catalunya committee so exasperated ERC MP Pilar Vallugera that she finally jumped on a classic topic with her: her surname. Few in the chamber know how to pronounce it correctly and end up calling her Valluguera instead of Vallugera. On Monday, she complained to a PP MP who had once again mispronounced her surname: "Vallugera! And it's not even a Catalan surname. Tell me!" Vallugera (in Spanish) if you want!" he said.

The PP and Vox have declared war on the Socialists in the Valencian Community to such an extent that they have left them out of the polling station in the Cortes, despite being the second largest party. The PSPV's representative in the body, Gabriela Bravo, has abandoned them to return to the fiscal race. On Wednesday, her replacement was voted in, and to everyone's surprise, the PP and Vox voted for a Popular Party deputy, Magdalena González, thus violating the minimum standards of parliamentary courtesy.