Together looks at Waterloo with everything to do
The new political course starts next week with more unknowns than certainties, also on Puigdemont's role
BarcelonaIt closed the course with a summit of mayors and local officials, with some unease, and opens it with the uncertainty generated by a host of open questions. Junts will begin the political year next week looking towards Waterloo. Beyond awaiting the application of the amnesty, crucial decisions for the immediate future of the formation still need to be untangled. At present, sources from Junts' leadership state that no extraordinary congress is planned to make changes to the party, despite rumors in some sectors, nor an imminent meeting to make major decisions by the Junts leadership.
The next period of sessions should be marked by the return of former president Carles Puigdemont, after nine years of exile. The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union should facilitate this, but, for the moment, the Supreme Court continues to play deaf. The party will be activated precisely next week with a meeting of the permanent executive – the core of the leadership – and will continue it on Thursday with the national executive – the expanded leadership – as well as other ordinary meetings with district presidents or the parliamentary group's sessions which are planned for the week of September 7 in Catalonia.
It has been almost three years since the amnesty law has fully marked Junts, which is postponing strategic decisions while waiting for its leader to be able to return to Catalonia. The Constitutional Court will definitively position itself from September 22, a position that should entirely condition the decision of the investigating judge Pablo Llarena. If all goes well, the separatists will have to decide the role of the former President of the Government. To begin with, whether he will assume the position of head of the opposition to the government of Salvador Illa, which has been vacant for the first two years of the legislature. Puigdemont retains his seat as a deputy in Parliament, but it is not clear if he will exercise this condition, participating in the day-to-day parliamentary debate.
In the long run, it will also be necessary to define whether he will be the candidate in the next Catalan elections: sources from the leadership take it for granted, but they acknowledge that it will depend on Puigdemont's will, who has long since moved away from the media spotlight. He has not held a press conference since January due to the Rodalies crisis and his public appearances are minimal, with the exception of social media.
The municipal elections of 2027 are the closest electoral challenge and this distances a possible imminent call for an extraordinary congress, which would serve to introduce deeper changes in a party that polls have been giving a warning sign for some time. In the local sphere, critics of the current direction will also not participate in "internal revolts" precisely because of this.
Avalanche of challenges
Just before the summer break, the Secretary General of Junts organized a summit with about twenty mayors and local officials to analyze the party's situation. The context was relevant, given the predicted blow in various surveys like that of ARA in May or the CEO's in June due to the rise of Aliança Catalana. Internally, there is a widespread impression that the party has a clear direction and leadership in Madrid, with Míriam Nogueras as conductor, but, on the other hand, it does not have it in Barcelona.
The party has not found a way to counteract the growth of Alliance, but it has managed to culminate the convergent regrouping municipal, with agreements with Impulsem, PDECat in numerous towns such as Mollerussa, or even Marta Pascal's Partit Nacionalista de Catalunya in Girona, where former convergent Carles Ribas will team up with Gemma Geis. In Barcelona and Tarragona, the mayoral candidates Jordi Martí and Jordi Sendra also represent the convergent tradition, victorious after internal clashes and having been questioned by the leadership.
The other big challenge is the relationship with Aliança for different reasons: the firewall he defended, from Prada, the general secretary, Jordi Turull, who advocated for a total "battle" of values, clashes with a part of the local world, which admits that "nobody will stop being mayor for not having the Alliance's support". And another factor is added, since the way to confront it from Parliament is not at all clear. "We are in a stalemate, everything is to be done because everything depends on the same thing," says a source. And this means that they are all waiting for Puigdemont. The first domino piece should be activated this September, but the counter to measure Junts' success or failure has been running for some time.