The Junqueras recover ERC Barcelona

BarcelonaJunqueras's movement regains the Barcelona federation. Ricard Farin, the official ERC candidate to lead the party in the Catalan capital, has won Friday's primaries with 60.1% of the vote (393 ballots) against the critics' candidate, Rosa Suriñach, who obtained 36.1% of the votes (236 ballots); there were 25 blank votes. In total, 72% of the membership participated, an exact figure to that of a year ago, when the critics won by 14 votes. That leadership, which Creu Camacho had led for a year, blew up a few months ago, when more than half of the executive resigned due to disagreements with the direction Camacho had taken. The internal rebellion has not benefited the critics; instead, the officialists have regained a federation that had historically resisted national leadership and had acted as a counter-power.

Precisely, this had been one of Farin's barbs at the critics, whom he accused of presenting themselves to act as a counter-power to the national leadership, a thesis that Suriñach herself denied in an interview with ARA. The main banner under which the officialists had run was to leave behind the internal battles that have historically marked the ERC federation in Barcelona and to focus on "being useful" in the city, as he also explained in an interview with this newspaper. Farin teamed up with Núria Clotet, current coordinator of the municipal group in the Barcelona City Council, and had received the support of Eva Baró, who led the Junqueras candidacy a year ago, as well as the members of Camacho's executive who remained after the rebellion. This candidacy had also been endorsed by the former ERC leader in Barcelona, Patrícia Gomà; the current spokesperson for the Republicans in the Parliament, Ester Capella, and ERC deputy Joan Ignasi Elena.

The national leadership did not officially position itself in favor of either of the two candidacies, but it was a secret known to everyone that their preference was for Farin's list. In fact, with the victory of the officialists, one of the critical fronts that Junqueras had open in the territory is now closed. The party chose Elisenda Alamany as the candidate for mayor of Barcelona a few months ago. At that time, the critics did not present an alternative candidate, but the way those primaries had been called was already a cause for criticism by the resigned members. Now, a year before the municipal elections, Junqueras sees that the Barcelona federation will be aligned with Alamany.