Turull does not rule out agreements with Aliança Catalana in the municipalities: "We will talk about pacts the day after the elections"

BarcelonaThe CEO survey that predicts a tie between Junts and Aliança Catalana Being the third largest party doesn't worry Jordi Turull. At least, that's what the general secretary of Junts tried to convey this Tuesday after the poll was published on Monday, indicating that 21% of Catalans who voted for Carles Puigdemont in the Catalan Parliament would now vote for Aliança Catalana. However, this won't cause Junts to change course. "We won't do things for four votes that will make us blush with shame two years from now [...]. It would be a contradiction if, because of some polls, we made a U-turn," he said at a press conference organized by the Barcelona DailyThe survey, conducted by journalism students at UPF, is the result of a narrative and has both "confessable and unconfessable" intentions behind it, according to Turull. "I'm not worried about the polls, I'm worried about the situation in the country," he said, noting that the CEO's last survey was conducted six months before the 2024 elections. He also predicted a drop in Junts' support. which ultimately did not happen –at that time, however, the party had not yet confirmed Puigdemont as its candidate–. Nevertheless, the secretary general of Junts has avoided vetoing agreements with Sílvia Orriols' party.

The competition between Junts and Aliança Catalana has been the focus of several questions from the students, who have asked Turull to clarify whether the party is considering forming an agreement with Sílvia Orriols' party. The precedent is what happened in Ripoll in 2023, when the local branch rebelled against the leadership. who supported the sanitary cordonand refused to join forces with the PSC, ERC and the CUP to prevent Orriols from becoming mayor; a year later, with the Catalan elections, Aliança entered the Parliament with two deputies and the leadership of Junts She was already aligned with the local group in refusing to put forward a motion of censure to remove her from the mayor's office.

In defense of "one people"

In this context, Turull avoided specifying what relationship they will maintain with the far-right pro-independence party after the 2027 municipal elections. "Regarding coalition politics, I always say that we should talk the day after the elections. Every town is different," he pointed out. He then emphasized that Junts has "red lines," such as the conviction that Catalonia is "one people"—a principle common to Catalan nationalism that united the PSUC and Convergència—and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms. "But don't you think that Aliança Catalana doesn't comply with these principles?" one of the students then asked. Turull avoided taking a clear stance on the matter, although he admitted that he had seen "speeches and positions" within the Orriola ranks that did not respect these red lines. In the Catalan Parliament, Junts is part of the pact to isolate Vox and Aliança Catalana, which has been signed by the PSC, ERC, Comuns, and the CUP.

A year ago, Turull distanced himself from the possibility of forming a pact. accusing the Orriols group of embodying "anti-Catalonia" and stoking "hate speech": "We don't want to know anything about it and we want to fight it," he said at the time. Aliança Catalana has shown itself willing to make a pact with Puigdemont's party. Turull has warned that his party doesn't want to be "an alternative to Aliança," but rather part of Salvador Illa's government.

The Government is not engaging in self-criticism

But faced with the rise of the far right as demonstrated by the CEO, the PSC executive is also not engaging in self-criticism. At a press conference this Tuesday, spokesperson and Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, argued that the best way to confront this is to continue promoting their "progressive and reformist agenda" and denied that the PSC had intended to empower Aliança to gain electoral advantage, as the CUP has suggested. From the Catalan Parliament, anti-capitalist deputy Xavier Pellicer accused Isla of "trivializing" the far-right party in his speeches and of giving it prominence to "weaken" Junts. Comunes, through its parliamentary spokesperson David Cid, has prescribed that the Catalan government, as an antidote to the reactionary surge, should address the housing access crisis, an issue that the CEO (Catalan Business Confederation) places by a wide margin as the primary concern of Catalans: "What is needed is for people to see that their real and concrete problems are being solved." —reports Víctor Sanz GuerreroIn this sense, the Catalan government has also contextualized the rise of Aliança and Vox in the polls within the reactionary wave being experienced worldwide, beyond Catalonia. Even so, it maintained that the majority sentiment of Catalans is to want to be a "welcoming country".

The poll comes at a time when there are voices within Junts, especially among mayors, calling for a change of course to avoid poor results in the 2027 elections, but also after the break with the PSOE and the reorganization of the parliamentary groupMP Mònica Sales replaces Albert Batet as president of the parliamentary group, and Salvador Vergés will be the new spokesperson. Turull has denied that this move constitutes a "demotion" of Batet, who becomes Puigdemont's right-hand man to prepare for his return and tour Catalonia. The party anticipates this return will "shake up" the political landscape and even Junts' electoral prospects.