Outside the Government it is cold. The Catalan socialists know this well since they have been in the opposition since 2010, but their municipal power in the metropolitan area has allowed them to seek shelter in the Barcelona Provincial Council while the electoral results have not been favorable. Now, after Junts left the coalition government with the ERC, it is up to the postconvergents to seek refuge outside the Generalitat and the supra-municipal institution, which they control with the PSC, is the last great redoubt of power that remains.
Provincial councils are public entities that enjoy great discretion to distribute aid and subsidies, with poorly defined powers and wide sleeves in terms of hiring positions of trust. This is favored by the fact that they are second level entities, that is, their composition is not directly chosen by the citizens, which accentuates their opacity.
Through the one in Barcelona, ??the postconvergents try to find accommodation for people from their environment, such as the former chief of staff of Laura Borràs, Salvador Esteve, who is not yet official.
Junts per Catalunya has been left without seven ministers in the Government and without between 250 and 300 senior officials. They pocketed about 23 million euros in salaries and contributed half a million to the coffers of the party. Many will not seek public shelter, but others, with a more political profile, will demand accommodation in the Administration.
Junts does not have much room to make room for them in the Provincial Council. The number of advisers per party is set by a government agreement and the post-convergence formation already has nine advisers for the parliamentary group (13 have the PSC and 14 are from the ERC) and another ten technically guide the seven advisers who share government with the PSC. Their salaries are succulent, ranging from 54,800 to 78,300 euros per year.
“The quota is practically complete unless some advisers are replaced by others,” warn sources from the Provincial Council, who point out that it would make little sense for Junts to increase its quota of advisers to seven months of the municipal ones. In addition, the post-convergence advisers are divided between Junts and the PDECat, which was the one who signed the pact with the PSC, which narrows the margin. On the other hand, in the opposition they warn that they still have a certain margin if the presidency of the Provincial Council, Núria Marín, allows it.
The maximum legal number of temporary staff in the Provincial Council is 124, but there are currently 91 active advisers, including 19 from Junts. Since there is still the possibility of incorporating 35 advisers to be distributed among the groups, the postconvergents could press to increase their quota, but socialist and PDECat sources – supporters of the pact – reject it.
Junts still has the option of making room in other entities or management bodies that depend on the Barcelona Provincial Council, or in other councils, such as Girona, Lleida or Tarragona, where they do govern with ERC. They can also find warmth in the municipal governments or in the county councils, where Junts also closed more pacts with the PSC than with the ERC and control 21 of the 42 county councils. But the most precious booty is still Barcelona. With a budget of 1,060 million euros, it is well above the 143.7 million of Lleida, the 162.8 of Girona, or the 187.4 of Tarragona.
The paradox lies in the fact that the pact between Junts and the PSC to govern the entity has been maintained despite being a perennial source of friction between the former partners of the Government, and that they extol the “loyalty” with which they have been working.
Despite leaving the Government due to the alleged flaccidity of ERC with the independence cause, in Junts they combine the defense of the agreement in the Provincial Council with criticism of the PSC for favoring the application of 155. Ammunition for ERC, which can turn into a boomerang if Aragonès ends up agreeing with Illa on the budgets of the Generalitat. The reason for such inconsistency is simple: the Provincial Council is a source of power and money for dozens of positions and many mayors: 370 from JxCat and 89 from the PSC, although the Socialists are the most populous in Catalonia.
