Tense calm in Junts as they await the return of Carles Puigdemont

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Since he was born in October 2017, Junts has lived in a kind of standby Permanent. In its early years, it dedicated its efforts to establishing itself as a party amidst a dispute with the PDECat. From 2020 onwards, with its formal founding as Carles Puigdemont's organization, internal battles ensued between the more pragmatic and the unilateralists. In fact, since its inception, Junts has behaved like a pendulum: it has gone from presenting itself as a disruptive party capable of breaking with ERC and leaving the Catalan government in 2022 because there was no progress towards independence, to being a kind of Convergència 2.0 championing compromise and governability – the Xavier Xavier Xavier –

The one who has set the pace for these changes has been Puigdemont himself, who, whether or not he was the party president, has been the glue that has managed to unite everyone from former Convergència members to grassroots separatists who began to follow him after October 1st. However, this amalgam, which has coexisted with moments of greater or lesser tension, now finds itself at a crossroads: with the national axis taking a back seat and a new competitor on the right – Alliance – ideological differences within the party are surfacing; there is a buried debate about whether or not to renew the leadership (and to what extent), considering that Catalan society seems to have turned the page on 2017, and above all, Junts is awaiting an event that could change the organization from top to bottom: the return of Carles Puigdemont thanks to the amnesty. In fact, Junts has always existed with its top leader in exile.

All the pending debates are waiting for this event, which all sources – including socialists – place before Easter 2026. The question is what Puigdemont will do if he can return: will he be a candidate, as the party leadership now assures, or will he decide to go home and make way for the party?

The dome

A year after the Calella congress, where the party displayed a cohesion unseen for some time—Jordi Turull swept aside Laura Borràs's influence—the current secretary general remains in a slump. "The party isn't under tension in the good sense of the word," says one of those consulted. There are also those who are beginning to question (always privately) whether Puigdemont is the ideal candidate for the Generalitat, given the current electoral prospects and the rise of Aliança Catalana. At the same time, a significant number of local officials don't quite identify with the leadership's rhetoric. This leadership is essentially comprised of Carles Puigdemont, Jordi Turull, Miriam Nogueras, Albert Batet, Josep Rius, and Toni Castellà. This last leader, from Unió, unlike the others, has maintained good connections with a segment of the former Convergència world through businessman David Madí and former president Artur Mas.

For now, the Junts leadership rules with an iron fist to prevent any sign of dissent from seeing the light of day. And if anyone stands out, there are usually boos – several sources confirm. In fact, the moment of greatest tension between the leadership and the mayors who were demanding a change of direction in the party, as reported by the ARAThis occurred during the meeting they held in Manresa last September with Turull: the mayor of Calella, Marc Buch, ended up confronting him. Later, in Waterloo, the local officials also did not have a pleasant meeting with Puigdemont.

And indeed, Turull's rapport with the region is not at its best. The leaders who were around Turull, the so-called turullismoThey have drifted apart. One of the main examples of this is former regional minister Miquel Buch, who left the party due to disagreements, as well as the leaders in the Maresme region, headed by Carles Bosch, whom Turull unsuccessfully tried to unseat in the last regional executive elections. The general secretary's inner circle now consists of Joan Ramon Casals, the party's municipal policy coordinator, and Judith Toronjo, the organization secretary and his enforcer in the region. The relationship between the general secretary and Puigdemont has also cooled, according to some sources. The former president has a new right-hand man in the organization, Albert Batet, who has taken over as deputy to the president after Mònica Sales became head of the party group in the Catalan Parliament. Mayors on the verge of losing their party affiliation

Currently, local officials are focused on the municipal elections, where they hope to curb the rise of the far right with a tough stance on security and immigration. Among the mayors most influential in shaping this narrative are Marc Buch (Calella), Albert Castells (Vic), Òscar Fernández (Cabrera de Mar), Arnau Rovira (Manlleu), and Agustí Arbós (Olot), as well as councilors like Ramon Caballé (Berga). All of them belong to Junts, are eager to influence the party, and feel a connection with its spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Salvador Vergés. On the other hand, there are mayors with strong personal brands who are rather wary of the Junts brand. For many years, the prime example of this—and one who could now set a trend for other local officials—has been the mayor of Martorell, Xavier Fonollosa. In that city, where the PSC wins every election except the municipal ones, the former CiU leader holds 16 out of 21 council seats and has registered a party, Junts per Martorell. So far, he has formed alliances with Junts to gain seats on the County Council and the Provincial Council, but his plans for 2027 are uncertain. David Font (Gironella), Marc Castells (Igualada), and Lluís Soler (Deltebre) are in a similar situation. Soler is even open to forming alliances with other parties, such as Esquerra or the PSC, through a supra-local platform, Enlairem. Those who maintain an alliance with Junts but want to preserve their own distinct voice are the Impulsem Penedès platform, with Sergi Vallès (Torrelles de Foix) as its leading figure, and Jordi Masquef, of Junts per Figueres.

The right-leaning discourse of these mayors clashes particularly with the left-wing sector within Junts, centered around Agustí Colomines, who has direct ties to Puigdemont and has organized through the Left Movement (MES) party.

The doubt of Barcelona

The other issue to be resolved within Junts is the mayoral candidate for Barcelona. There are two contenders, Jordi Martí and Josep Rius, but the party wants to avoid a primary election. Those close to Puigdemont have tried to convince Martí to withdraw, since Rius has the former president's confidence. For now, there is no agreement, so they are looking for a third, high-profile name that can generate consensus. Previously, former regional minister Joaquim Forn and former president Artur Mas declined the nomination. Meanwhile, some party members haven't ruled out Jaume Giró, who left the Junts leadership due to disagreements with Turull and Puigdemont.