The mayors' lobby sets Junts' course on immigration

BarcelonaMayors are key players in all political parties. But right now, if there's a territorial power with growing influence on their political party's discourse, especially on the issue of immigration, it's the territorial power of Junts. It's the lobby of mayors and councilors from medium-sized cities, who are in good harmony with each other and who have organized to set the course: they are halfway through their term, two years before the municipal elections, and it's already clear that beyond the usual electoral competition with ERC and the PSC, they are also facing an event. In this sense, they have conspired to ensure that the party talks about "everything," including issues they believe have been considered "taboo" until now and are, instead, on the far right's agenda. Failing to address them, they believe, gives it wings.

In recent weeks, they have pushed ahead with introducing new elements into the official Junts narrative: the proposal to tighten registration and the ban on the Islamic veil are things they have lobbied for, in addition to working to get the national leadership to advocate for a paradigm shift in their aid. Their proposal is that "those who have been there the longest receive benefits," that the benefits be "temporary," and that they be linked to "effort." They want, for example, having a job to also give points toward accessing aid, even ahead of those without. These criteria clash with those of the Generalitat (Catalan government), which, like all social benefits, are aimed at those with lower incomes. Unlike the registration process or the Islamic veil, sources from Junts' national leadership assure that this proposal has not yet been discussed within the party's executive committee.

The hard core of mayors

In the last municipal elections—those of 2019 and 2023—a new batch of mayors and councilors took office, connected across generations and acting as a core force in shaping Junts' discourse. These regional cadres, who are from cities with similar problems, lobby for Junts to address their reality. They are the mayors of Calella (Marc Buch), Cabrera de Mar (Òscar Fernández), Jordi Masquef (Figueres), Albert Castells (Vic), Arnau Rovira (Manlleu); as well as councilors Ramon Bacardit (Manresa) and Ramon Caballé (Berga), and the veteran mayor of Martorell, Xavier Fonollosa. Also in Olot is Agustí Arbós, who has taken over from Pep Berga. Some of them even share a WhatsApp group called Grupo Estratégico, launched at the end of 2024, to share concerns or meet in person, which are usually more or less frequent depending on the context, according to local sources. One of them claims this growing influence considering that, right now, the city councils are the only institutional power of Junts.

This group also has the support of advisors from the Barcelona Provincial Council (Diba) who act as think tank and which are outside the scope of the party's usual governing bodies. There is even a report prepared by a consultant who is now also an advisor to the Diba Junts group – called Civic contract of citizenship and values of Catalan identity– which compiles all the proposals from these mayors, some of which generate suspicion within Junts, especially among the more moderate and left-wing wing. In fact, at its heart is the debate over how Junts should confront Aliança to prevent vote leakage, and which anticipates a future discussion within the party: the possibility of forming pacts with the far right in the city councils.

The report

The report, according to sources consulted, discusses tightening the requirements for registering for municipal governments—already embraced by the party—creating an electronic social security card so that city councils know how many benefits a person receives, regardless of the issuing authority, to prevent potential fraud (which they believe may occur); or changing the paradigm of social assistance. Currently, local sources consulted by ARA complain that most benefits are provided by the Generalitat (Catalan Government) and the State, and city councils cannot influence the requirements for granting them.

These mayors' proposal is that, to receive a benefit, income should no longer be the only factor, but rather ties to the municipality, which they associate with "Catalan identity," or whether one has an employment contract. Local sources give the example of meal grants, where they want a family to have more points if both parents work: "There are families that need it for conciliation. And, on the other hand, if one of the two doesn't work, the child can go home," they argue, despite the income problem that may be associated behind the family in which only one works.

The example of Vic

In Vic, for example, local sources point out, this new paradigm is already being implemented when subsidizing school supplies from the city council, a sum totaling 400,000 euros. The mayor of this city, Albert Castells, has publicly stated that they are on the verge of "collapse." Local sources indicate that last year they received "400 students" mid-year through the so-called "enrollment program" and that, this year, more or less the same number has been repeated. "Next year's aid from the Generalitat will go to people who have not yet arrived, and we will have to leave people who are already here unattended," these sources summarize, calling for a "thorough review of social assistance." "It is unsustainable," they warn, in addition to demanding that registration be linked to a "work permit," which would severely restrict current legislation.

Debate within the party

This lobby of mayors and the Barcelona Provincial Council have so far enjoyed the support of the head of municipal policy, David Saldoni, who is leaving politics to enter the private sector—"he has given us a voice," says one interviewee—and also of the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, whose inner circle is paid by Diba. Joan Ramon Casals, who will replace Saldoni as head of municipal policy at Junts, has also recently been hired as an advisor to the Provincial Council. Through this network, regional officials create discourse outside the national executive branch, which operates at a different pace and, in some cases, is suspicious of these approaches.

In fact, there is an overlapping of groups to shape Junts' direction on immigration: beyond this lobby of mayors, there is an immigration advisory council led by Àngel Colom; the party's own immigration sector, and an internal Junts working group on the delegation of powers to the Generalitat, which includes Barcelona councilor Victoria Alsina, MP Agustí Colomines, and also the spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras. In fact, Alsina and Colomines, in collaboration with the party's leader, Carles Puigdemont, drafted the entire immigration section of Junts' political report. A report that, for some mayors, falls short on this topic. In this sense, the Junts leadership has also asked MP Salvador Vergés to work on the migration issue with mayors, especially in the Girona district, to curb the rise of the far right in the municipal elections.