Lluc Salellas will re-present himself as a candidate for mayor of Girona in 2027

GironaThis Saturday morning, during an informal get-together with Guanyem's members, the mayor of Girona, Lluc Salellas, has announced that he will once again run as a candidate for Mayor of the City Council. Initially, Salellas' intention was not to repeat as a candidate, as he explained in his first interview with ARA as mayor, but in recent months the possibility of his continuity at the head of the transversal left-wing formation that integrates the CUP has been gaining weight. The decision arises at the proposal of the membership, who consider it the best option to try to regain the mayoralty and be able to continue the current government's work from the highest executive responsibility. Salellas is the formation's greatest asset, especially after the number two in the last elections, Cristina Andreu, who was a pillar, resigned at the beginning of the term for health reasons.

exception in the statutes of the anticapitalistsThe 2027 elections will be Lluc Salellas' fourth consecutive municipal election, as he is a CUP member, as an elected councilor. In 2023, he was able to run thanks to an exception in the statutes of the anticapitalists, as these do not allow more than two consecutive terms. Now it will be, therefore, the second time he breaks this rule and we will have to see what the reaction of the CUP's national leadership will be.

Continuity in Junts and change of cycle in Esquerra

Salellas was the candidate yet to be confirmed from the three parties currently governing the city. The deputy mayor Gemma Geis, from Junts, will also repeat with the endorsement of the membership. It is with her that the mayor has had the most friction during the term, caused by the logical differences between the radical left and the heirs of the post-convergent space, especially on issues of security, immigration, and the management of bicycle tourism. These frictions, while never endangering the real continuity of the tripartite government, have intensified in recent weeks as the campaign approaches. "I only consider being mayor of Girona; Lluc Salellas has already had his chance," Geis said this week on Girona FM. The Junts candidate wants to mark her own profile and raise the tone on hot topics, especially in the face of the more than predictable advance of the far-right Aliança Catalana.

Esquerra is immersed in internal struggles and will present Marc Puigtió. He is the candidate resulting from the battle of factions between the continuity sector of the current deputy mayor Quim Ayats and the new platform Moviment Gironí, presented by Puigtió, former mayor of Sant Julià de Ramis. The transition has been extremely turbulent, with challenges to primaries, bloc resignations from the board, and accusations of fraud. After this cataclysm, Puigtió aims to improve Ayats' results, who obtained three councilors in a district that has always been difficult for the Republicans.

The unknown of the PSC and Aliança

In the opposition, the big unknown is at the PSC. The 2023 candidate, Sílvia Paneque, now in the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya, immersed in managing the Cercanías crisis, is in all the running. She has a lot of political agenda for Girona and its surroundings and her name often appears as the target of criticism and reproach from the municipal government. But Paneque assures that she has not yet made the final decision nor has she set a deadline to announce it. According to sources from ARA, at the Palau de la Generalitat, they take for granted that she will leave her post to opt for victory in Girona, but, if the minister finally does not take the step, the socialists' alternatives would be Beatriz Esporrín, current head of the opposition in the City Council, the deputy in Congress Marc Lamuà, or the sub-delegate of the Spanish government in Girona, Pere Parramon.

the target of criticism and reproach from the municipal government