The dream opportunity for Carles Puigdemont

BarcelonaFor three years, Aliança Catalana has become Junts' worst nightmare. First in Ripoll and then throughout Catalonia, the far-right's growth is based on the adherence to the project of disillusioned separatists —now also disillusioned Spanish nationalists— and polls suggest that it is Junts who suffers most from voter flight.

To combat this reality, the Junts supporters first joined a cordon sanitaire from which they have largely distanced themselves over time. Then they toughened their proposals against crime, irregular immigration, and squatters. But Puigdemont's party has not yet found the bandage that works to stop the bleeding. Therefore, the PSC's abstention this week on the Ripoll budgets offers the dreamed-of opportunity for Carles Puigdemont to try to change the dynamic.

"What is the PSC doing to stop Aliança? Reaching an agreement with Sílvia Orriols on the Ripoll budgets", Junts hastened to publish on social media once it was confirmed that on Thursday, almost at midnight, the socialists abstained, facilitating the approval of the 2026 accounts.

This allows Junts, firstly, to attack the PSC, which it has long accused of being the main support for the far-right. The Junts members are convinced that the President of the Generalitat and his party are confronting Aliança to harm them and get rid of their main electoral competitor. Salvador Illa himself had to come out this Saturday to deny any kind of agreement with Sílvia Orriols: "There will never be agreements with those who advocate intolerance and division".

But, above all, the Ripoll episode allows Junts to stir up the contradictions of Alianza, which has now had to rely on the PSC, the party that represents, in theory, the antithetical model to which the pro-independence far-right aspires. Alianza knows that the budget vote can have negative consequences for it, and this is demonstrated by the fact that the party's entire leadership has come out to disparage the socialist abstention. "They have abstained for free," remarked Orriols herself on X, who met to negotiate with the PSC councilors, adding that they "never" make pacts with "the PSOE branch".

In Barcelona, then, Alianza will henceforth argue that Ada Colau never made a pact with Manuel Valls —as the Comuns say— and that Collboni never did with the PP —as the socialists point out—. It is true that, if the PSC had not abstained, Orriols would probably have had budgets a month later anyway thanks to a new vote of confidence.

And it is here where Junts cannot fully exploit this dream opportunity. Aliança cannot be reproached much for pacts with the PSC because they invested Pedro Sánchez and until recently they had a stability agreement with the PSOE. And the socialists also cannot be bothered for giving oxygen to Aliança when a year ago it was Junts who backed out at the last minute of the motion of no confidence that would have removed Orriols from the mayoralty.

Junts strategists will have to work indirectly to try to make voters see that, when necessary, Silvia Orriols also accepts socialist votes, does not hang the estelada, nor removes the Spanish flag from the City Council, nor closes mosques.

The details of the week

Víctor de Aldama is the third protagonist in the mask trial that began this week in the Supreme Court. He, the alleged briber, has already obtained a better deal from the Prosecutor's Office than the two alleged corrupt officials, José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García. Now, however, he also wants to get it from the press: on Tuesday he brought croissants and palm cakes for the journalists to have for breakfast.

María Jesús Montero has a mission, according to the polls, practically impossible in Andalusia. To try to overcome the PP, this week she has surrounded herself with familiar faces from socialism such as Carmen Romero, Felipe González's ex-wife, who introduced the candidate at an informative breakfast. Unlike her ex-husband, Romero does seem like she could vote for the PSOE.