Making decisions at the last moment is part of Junts’ DNA. So much so that it is common to hear from some of its leaders a sentence attributed to Julius Caesar to avoid assessing today what may happen tomorrow: “When we reach that river, we will cross that bridge”. A phrase that made a fortune in the preparations for the 1-O referendum and that sounds today if you ask about the JxCat candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat. There are three names on the table: that of former president Carles Puigdemont and that of former councilors Jordi Turull, secretary general, and Josep Rull, president of the national council.
The interim situation that has often arisen due to issues related to the process and its judicial side has helped the habit of waiting until the last moment to lean towards one option or another at some times, but at others in what could have been a different scenario, this practice has also been adopted, as for example in the preparation of the candidacy for the internal congress of 2022, when there was a pact on the horn between Turull and Laura Borràs that avoided the confrontation of projects.
Having finished the electoral cycle of last year’s municipal and general elections, it is time to think about the following, which in Catalonia, if there is no surprise advance, will have as its first appointment the European elections in June and then, at the end of year or the beginning of 2025, the elections to the Parliament. For now, Junts does not have a designated candidate and whenever the question is asked, the leaders of the formation hide under the long shadow of the factual leader of the party, Puigdemont.
The candidate before the approval of the amnesty law was agreed with the PSOE was Rull. The Egaren leader is free from disqualification penalties. On the other hand, the other two who sound to head the list, Turull and the ex-president, without the criminal oblivion would be impossible.
With the current script, the amnesty law will be published in the Official State Gazette in the spring, after a first approval in the Congress of Deputies at the end of January and two months of fallow in the Senate for the reform of the regulation who invented the PP.
So, the possibility that it enters into force and has consequences in the judicial field can condition the nomination of candidates for Junts – also for Esquerra Republicana -. But this is not an obstacle for several leaders to consider that it would be necessary to formally appoint a candidate who travels all over Catalonia and takes positions at the forefront, even if the situation could change in the coming months.
Several voices are speaking out in this regard and Rull’s name emerges for the need, since the amnesty application schedule is uncertain. They argue that he is the person who, in the event of early elections, can lead the candidacy.
The leaders consulted see with fear that the PSC is gradually gaining ground as an alternative to the Government with Salvador Illa, now head of the opposition, as a consolidated candidate.
Music is not new: before the municipal elections there were already people in the management of JxCat who believed that it was necessary to designate the candidate in the summer, but the general elections altered the panorama.
In 2015, in the middle of the competition between Rull and Turull to lead the party – then Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya -, the Salomonic decision and the formula chosen to fit the pieces together was that the first would be preserved for a more institutional role and that the second take command of the formation. The recipe could be recovered now, although no one wants to give their opinion in public and the scenario is not the same.
Former president Artur Mas, in a recent interview, indicated that it would be Puigdemont who would make the decision, since if he takes the step no one else will. It goes without saying that, if the current MEP wants to lead Junts’ candidacy for the presidency of the Generalitat, everyone will follow his lead. But it has not yet been pronounced in this regard.
In any case, appointing Rull already does not prevent that, if the amnesty is applied in time, another candidate cannot be appointed at the last moment, such as the former president, who for now only has the elections on his mind Europeans, or Turull himself. Thus, sources in the formation find it difficult for Puigdemont to lead any candidacy for the presidency right now, when a fragmented Parliament is expected. “To do what? With which alliances?”, ask the sources, who believe that he is not a figure that can fight and wear out now in the regional arena.
There is the circumstance that some voices who ask that a candidate be appointed to mark their own profile also consider that perhaps it is time to hold a congress to be able to consolidate the change of direction that the party has gradually taken in recent months. Even so, the official position of the management, for now, is not this, both with regard to the candidate and the holding of a congress. There is still time, they say.