The referendum that Junts's membership in Tarragona wants and that the leadership wants to avoid

Barcelona"I will be a candidate in 2027". The leader of Junts in the Tarragona City Council, Jordi Sendra, declared in May last year that, "going through the internal processes", he would be the party's candidate for mayor in next year's municipal elections, after the failure of the attempted pact with the PSC to enter the government. However, what he said then in an interview with Diari de Tarragona it is not clear that it will end up happening. Until a year ago there was no visible face that could head an alternativeThe problem is that not holding primaries will depend on the local Tarragona committee, which will have elections this April: the two factions of the party want a vote and could try to force it. Furthermore, the scenario of imposing a third way –Adan's is not liked by any sector– can cause "more damage", according to the common analysis of the sendristas and the critics, as this newspaper has found. The two sides start from opposite diagnoses, but they see themselves as capable of winning, and the leadership of Carles Puigdemont and Jordi Turull already knows this.

In the third way, names like that of the deputy Jordi Bertran had also been floated, which did not go any further. Before Baiges announced that he wanted to be a candidate for mayor, the leadership had already been analyzing Tarragona for some time, paying close attention to the polls, and studying the possibility of making a leadership change if someone could add more.

Complex battle

The battle for Tarragona's leadership is the most complex after BarcelonaThe battle for Tarraconensian leadership is the most complex "We cannot be slaves to the PSC" is the opinion of the membership opposed to Sendra, who laments "a blank check" to the mayor Rubén Viñuales, a former leader of Ciudadanos. Sendra is also accused of "disdain" for the membership, and there is a push to recover "the course". On the other hand, the Sendra membership defends the work done and calls for a two-term project. They deny being "slaves to the PSC" and emphasize collaboration with the municipal government to achieve things for the city. The request for the resignation of the deputy mayor for Culture due to the operation against the director of Tarragona Ràdio is one of the examples of Junts clashing with the socialists.

The tension in Junts Tarragona also extended to the election of the local committee, suspended in December amid accusations of irregularities against the critical faction – which, in turn, recalls tense local assemblies where they asked not to enter the government. There was also a split in the municipal group: councilor Elvira Vidal left it last year and a few weeks ago admitted in ARA that she does not rule out joining Aliança Catalana or the PSC for the municipal elections.