Junts' change of direction increases disagreements with the CUP in Girona.

GironaThe Catalan Alliance currently doesn't even have an official candidate for the municipal elections in Girona, but its specter has been haunting the plenary session for weeks, causing friction within the pro-independence coalition governing the city. The marriage of convenience between Guanyem (the formation that integrates the CUP) and Junts, which two years ago served to oust, also with the help of ERC, the victory of Silvia Paneque's PSC in the last municipal elections, has been shaken by the emergence ofa tougher speech of the regional council member Gemma Geis on matters of security and also immigration.

It all began at the end of September with a press conference by Geis, leader of Junts in Girona and first deputy mayor, in front of the controversial squat on Tomàs Mieres Street, where audio recordings of a rape in 2024 had just come to light. The deputy mayor announced the return of Guanyem to the council in order to act "more quickly" against "fraud and mafias." And she also conditioned the approval of the budget on an "increase" in security. A message that, according to the NGO Coordinator Solidàries, "linked migration and crime" when made in front of a conflictive squat.

Girona's mayor, Lluc Salellas, who has been working to put out any fires within the coalition since the beginning of his term, responded quickly with the unemployment issue and the announcement of the demolition of Tomàs Mieres' blog, making security the top of the city's political agenda. But a PSC motion on the electoral roll once again highlighted the disagreements within the governing coalition at the plenary session on Monday. Both Guanyem and ERC voted in favor of a text in the municipal plenary session that called for strengthening the city council's commitment to the universal right to registration to prevent the most vulnerable groups from running into the "barriers" of the mafias.

Juntos, on the other hand, decided to distance itself from the rest of the government team, calling it "opportunistic" and voting against the PP and Vox motion. In a thread on X, Geis's party in Girona accused the PSC of being more interested in "making noise than aspiring to govern."

It wasn't the first time that Junts in Girona had turned to X to be a dissenting voice in the council. Since the midpoint of the legislature, all parties have bolstered their electoral machinery. Guanyem has multiplied her social media posts showing the work done and has recruited former CUP MP in Congress, Albert Botran, to coordinate communications in the council. Junts has also created a new WhatsApp group for communication with the media to share their positions within the coalition.

Palestine and the Ferias glass

The first meeting was a press conference on security in front of the occupied Tomàs Mieres block. The next message, before the vote on the electoral roll in the plenary session, was to censure the choice of the illustration on the shantytown glass for the Girona Fairs. The decision by the Glass Commission, an independent group with representatives from the organizations participating in Girona's main festival, to choose a drawing of a hand holding a watermelon, a symbol of Palestine, also raised a stir among the council members.

While the leader of ERC in Girona and second deputy mayor, Quim Ayats, defended the choice because it "shows Girona, once again, as a city of solidarity that stands and stands alongside just causes," Junts said they rejected the decision because "it does not represent the plurality of Girona in such a space."

Less than two years remain until the next municipal elections and little by little the climate is becoming tense within the coalition. Friction between Guanyem and ERC is minimal, while differences with Junts are widening. The three municipal leaders, Salellas, Geis and Ayats, meet every Thursday morning to coordinate. They also have a common mobile group to avoid factions, but as sources within the council admit, it is a "poisoned" pact that at some point close to the elections "will have an expiration date."