The internal squabble in ERC in Girona city This week adds a new chapter after months of power struggles and a few The primaries to choose the mayoral candidate are very close.which ended with Marc Puigtió, former mayor of Sant Julià de Ramis and an ally of Oriol Junqueras, winning by a single vote. The local executive committee of the Republicans just submitted its resignation this Monday to prevent the motion of no confidence presented in January by the only member of the leadership aligned with Puigtió from succeeding. In a joint statement, the now-former executive committee asserts that it is resigning "due to the lack of democratic guarantees" and because it refuses to legitimize practices that it "believes are contrary to the party's values."

Less than two years before the municipal elections, internal squabbles continue within Esquerra de Girona. The party, which has always struggled to achieve good results in the city, is experiencing a turbulent period of leadership changes, with two radically opposed factions: the current local leadership, which holds seats on the City Council, and the new mayoral candidate, Marc Puigtió, an outsider and former mayor of Sant Julià de Ramis. who won the primaries by a single vote against the former Education delegate, Adam ManyéThe winning candidate and the leadership have not reached any agreement, so, in order to prepare the 2027 campaign with the necessary support, Puigdemont, who is aligned with Oriol Junqueras, has brought forward a motion of no confidence to establish a new Girona executive committee that inspires his confidence. 56% of Esquerra's members in Girona have signed the motion, with more than 60 endorsements from the 107 members with voting rights. The result has already been presented to the national leadership in Barcelona and, once validated by the guarantees committee, the statutory mechanism will be activated to put the replacement to a vote, presumably within the next two weeks.

The Esquerra Republicana Guarantees Commission has confirmed Marc Puigtió as the lead candidate for the 2027 Girona municipal elections, after rejecting the three challenges filed following the primaries last SeptemberThe former mayor of Sant Julià de Ramis, who has been campaigning intensely since January under a new brand without the Esquerra logo, Moviment Gironí, defeated former Education Delegate Adam Manyé by a single vote in September in a process that had been hanging in the balance until this week. Finally, the party's committee, citing the jurisprudence of the Central Electoral Board (JEC), has determined that the annulled ballot, which contained a sticker with the ERC logo over the name of candidate Manyé, was correctly invalidated. The other two challenges—one alleging a lack of impartiality on the part of the polling station officials and another questioning the entire process—have also been dismissed by the party's legal experts.

Girona has historically been a weak spot for Esquerra. It only governed the city during the Second Republic, and since the restoration of democracy, it has only managed to become the second largest force once, in 2015. In fact, in 2011, it was even left without representation in the City Council by a single vote: a spoiled vote containing the party's ballot along with a holy card of Escrivá de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, was counted. On Thursday night, this specter returned to haunt the local branch's assembly to choose the next Republican mayoral candidate in the primaries.