Together chooses mayoral candidate among four candidates from Sarrià-Sant Gervasi
The vote in the primaries in this district and in the Eixample are key to enthroning one of the aspirants
BarcelonaJunts' primaries in Barcelona are at a key point to choose the candidate for mayor among the four mayoral candidates, all of whom live in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district, a key area for Carles Puigdemont's party in the municipal elections. The choice is between the current municipal leader, Jordi Martí; the first secretary of the table and deputy, Glòria Freixa; the deputy in Congress Pilar Calvo, or the lawyer and former deputy Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas – the only one who lives in Sarrià; the others live in El Putxet, although Calvo is a member of the Eixample district, where she also used to live. The race has the decisive debate this Friday afternoon before the militants can vote in a process that will end with the publication of the results on Sunday evening.
L'Eixample and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi are the groups with the most weight among affiliates, with 250 and 220 militants respectively out of the 935 that Junts has in the Catalan capital, according to knowledgeable sources consulted by ARA. But they are not only important from within, but also electorally: Xavier Trias could not have won the 2023 elections – nor those of 2011 – without massive support in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (40% of the votes in the district and where he obtained one in five of his total votes in the city) and good results in Les Corts (31.2%), L'Eixample (28.3%) and Gràcia (26.5%), above the average percentage of votes in the city (22.4%).
They are places where CiU has traditionally had more strength and where the results are better than in the rest of the districts, even when the elections go badly, as in the 2019 municipal elections. The big challenge is how to keep the order votes above Avinguda Diagonal – and try not to lose those obtained below – even though these primaries also have a national profile reading that cannot be ignored.
Battle
Although Calvo's attempt to incorporate Freixa into her candidacy has so far failed, the Madrid deputy has gained relevant support from people close to former president Carles Puigdemont. For example, her lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, who has gone so far as to say that now there is ""finally, someone with a project and a team" and has starred in an event with the aspirant. "It seems they want to promote Pilar Calvo, we'll see how the membership reacts," assure other sources, who lament the role of people close to the leadership. "These moves are not liked," the sources emphasize.
In this context, Cuevillas stated this Friday morning in an interview on La 2 Cat that "people from the leadership" asked her to withdraw from the race – which aligns with the support for Calvo from prominent individuals to clear her path, also trying to attract Freixa and make it a two-way duel with Martí. A few hours after the interview, Cuevillas clarified that she is "a member of the leadership" and specified that the body is "plural".
The mystery before the vote was whether Calvo would gather a team around her that could truly compete with Martí, who was, a priori, the main favorite due to his experience in Barcelona politics and the support of the last mayoral candidate, Xavier Trias. Junts' initial bet was the party's spokesperson and also councilor in Barcelona, Josep Rius, but he preferred to stay out of it rather than have to compete in primaries that, he considered, could show internal division. This led to the emergence of various candidates such as Freixa – pragmatic and liberal –, Calvo – Puigdemontist –, and Cuevillas – former lawyer for Puigdemont–.
Ideologically there are not many nuances, but there are in the emphasis. Martí represents Trias's legacy, he was his right-hand man and campaign manager, he has the explicit support of the former mayor and claims the convergent ethos; but he has also stood up to the leadership to assert himself. Freixa is also pragmatic, but with a desire to bring "fresh air" and with a feminist approach – she has also received support from the vice-president of Barça, Elena Fort–. On the other hand, Cuevillas has presented herself as a grassroots candidate, capable of connecting with diverse social profiles, and her rapport with former president Puigdemont is well known, even though she is a free agent. And Calvo has presented a candidacy that boasts "transversality", but has received warmth from part of the party's leadership.
It was not anecdotal that Cuevillas warned in the interview with ARA that the primaries seem like "a pre-congress for the future governance of the party" between sectors and warned that it would be "a disservice to the party and the president" if they became "a plebiscite on Puigdemont".