Together signs in Girona the former convergent councilor who also wanted Aliança

GironaTen days after leaving Girona's municipal government, Junts has made a significant announcement for the upcoming municipal elections in the city. Alongside Gemma Geis, who will repeat as the head of the list, Carles Puigdemont's party has confirmed the incorporation of Carles Ribas as number two. A former member of Convergència and a councilor during Marta Madrenas's term, Ribas ran four years ago with his own brand, ARA Girona, but narrowly missed entering City Hall after obtaining 1,579 votes (4.6%). These were insufficient to surpass the 5% threshold to obtain a councilor but were key to understanding that Junts lost half of its votes in the last municipal elections. Ribas is currently part of the Partit Nacionalista de Catalunya (PNC), founded by Marta Pascual, and will run in the city in coalition with Junts x Girona.

With the incorporation of the former councilor, who has been very active on social media during these years of the independentist tripartite with a strong discourse on security and immigration, Junts is reinforcing its harder ideological profile in a context of electoral dispute with Aliança Catalana. At the same time, the party is preventing Ribas from potentially joining the rival candidacy of Sílvia Orriols' party, which had already seriously sounded him out, and is trying to mitigate the loss of over 1,500 votes that in 2023 harmed Gemma Geis's results.

"The agreement with Carles Ribas stems from the desire to broaden the city's central political lane with people who bring experience, knowledge, and generosity. This central lane is necessary to distance ourselves from extremism and sectarianism and to talk about people's real problems on the street, with serenity and providing solutions," stated the list leader at a press conference. For his part, the former councilor explained that from the first meeting with Geis they shared the idea that "Girona is above political parties and personal interests." "Sometimes it is much more important to add than to lead. We will not achieve for this city to shine again if all of us who have separated do not join hands again," he said. And, alluding indirectly to both Guanyem and Aliança, he reiterated the objective of consolidating political centrality: "The citizens of Girona are not extreme, they never have been."

Geis's departure from the Girona government

In his social media videos, Ribas has been very critical of the policies of the Girona City Council government, of which Junts was part until a few days ago. Therefore, even though he almost always targeted Guanyem Girona, the announcement of the candidacy, which had been in the making for months, was not made official until Geis left Lluc Salellas's executive.

Carles Ribas ran in 2023 alone after breaking with former mayor Marta Madrenas and the new candidate Gemma Geis. Last November, however, he met in Waterloo with Carles Puigdemont to move closer and begin to outline a shared strategy between the PNC and Junts, also beyond the city of Girona. A lawyer by profession, Ribas wanted to return to the political forefront, but he no longer had the electoral rights of ARA Girona. Junts, which is experiencing its particular struggle with the far-right, adds a media figure in the lawyer and former councilor to try to regain the mayoralty of the city.