Junts Tarragona buries the conflict: Sendra will be the candidate for mayor

BarcelonaJordi Sendra has been officially chosen as the Junts per Catalunya candidate for the mayoralty of Tarragona this Wednesday. Sendra obtained a total of 108 votes (85.04%) in a primary election in which 127 (82.47%) of the 154 registered militants participated, and which was marked by the absence of alternative candidates. The vote, held between this Tuesday and this Wednesday, culminates what the Tarragona militants requested, who requested to be able to vote in a referendum to decide their future mayoral candidate.

In recent months, the national leadership of the party had been very reluctant to hold these primaries in the city for fear of causing further internal divisions. This fear was based on the frontal clash between the path of Sendra's current leadership and the alternative of the critical sector led by lawyer Roger Baiges. 

With a more activist profile, Baiges called for a more transversal party and flatly rejected being "slaves to the PSC". He also criticized what they considered to be "carte blanche" from Sendra to the socialist municipal government. To avoid a breakdown between these two opposing paths, the leadership was considering imposing a consensus candidate. Names such as former councilor Fede Adan or deputy Jordi Bertran were heard, but none of these alternatives pleased either side of the membership. Finally, Baiges himself decided to step aside and withdraw his pre-candidacy.

Green light

In conversation with ARA, Roger Baiges has explained in more depth the reasons for his withdrawal. The situation dates back to December of last year, when the party's electoral oversight committee decided to postpone the electoral process for Junts' local executive in Tarragona because, according to party sources, a member was contacted by one of the lists running in the internal elections that were held – a move that is prohibited by the regulations. "We asked for elections to be held for the executive – Baiges highlights – we presented a candidacy and I suppose that surprised them, but, surprisingly, they withdrew the elections 24 hours beforehand, without calling new ones," Baiges points out.

The elections, finally, were held in April of this year, a few months of impasse during which, according to Baiges, the candidacy of Sendra's sector, led by Belén Riola, registered "a surge in members" which he describes as "unnatural growth," an argument that Sendra's circle categorically denies, and they also argue that to have exact knowledge of this information, one needs access to the electoral roll – a power that only the executive board has. The process culminated with the victory of the list close to Sendra and the defeat of the candidacy from Baiges' circle: Riola obtained 67.79% of the votes, compared to the 31.54% obtained by Elisabet Taulats Pahissa's candidacy.

Given all this, Baiges announced on July 16 that he would not run in the internal process to choose Junts' list leader in the municipality: "In this scenario, my option for the primaries has therefore logically been not to throw myself off a cliff."

The last Catalan capital

With this position, Sendra will seek to achieve the mayorship of Tarragona as he already did in the last municipal elections of 2023, in which Junts positioned itself as the fifth force in the council with 3 councilors and 8.65% of the votes. Thus, with the election in Tarragona, Junts already has the candidates confirmed in the four Catalan provincial capitals: Violant Cervera in the Paeria of Lleida, Gemma Geis in Girona and Jordi Martí in Barcelona.