If the Junts party were a student at a business school, they would know that the conviction of their president is a problem that “must be turned into an opportunity.” In fact, that is what the pragmatic sector of this formation thinks, the same one that fought to avoid leaving the Government and the same one that sees the candidacy of Xavier Trias in Barcelona as the great opportunity to correct the confrontational strategy for the benefit of a enabling strategy, now in the exclusive hands of ERC. But in Junts there is a very important factor that is above any coordinate: the role of symbolic leader (and executive, when he wants) that Carles Puigdemont exercises from exile.
Despite the little personal harmony between Laura Borrà s and Puigdemont, the two issue the same discourse, and this gives wings to the former’s attitude of not resigning as president of the Parliament and, even less, of leaving her organic post. This also explains the bombastic staging that Borrà s displayed when the sentence was announced, a photo with important absences –President Mas and several former ministers– and where some of those present made efforts to hide their discomfort. The episode was performed a few hours after the calculated function of Clara Ponsatà returning to Barcelona.
Once again, as happened with the debate on whether or not to continue forming part of the Cabinet chaired by Aragonès, Jordi Turull places the fear of the party’s rupture above any criteria. The proximity of the municipal ones makes everything much more delicate, and the general secretary tries to buy time. “Qui dia passa, any empenyâ€, goes the Catalan saying. All in all, Borrà s has become a nuisance for the local Junts candidates, starting with Trias, and also a nuisance for the group, to the extent that his personal adventures end up determining the already complicated absence of a long-term strategy for a organization that oscillates between rebellious rhetoric and neo-convergent management autonomism (as in the Barcelona Provincial Council). It is one thing for Puigdemont’s judicial fate to set the pace for Junts, and another, very different, is for Borrà s’s conviction for prevarication and forgery of documents (which, moreover, have nothing to do with 1-O) to do so. .
There was a time when Borràs appeared as the most powerful beacon in Junts. When he won the primaries, he seemed unstoppable. The bases applauded her enthusiastically. But everything can go wrong. Last summer, in the act of homage to the victims of the attack on August 17, her overacting and lack of institutional sense betrayed her. An institutional sense that, according to Magda Oranich, should be kept in mind now. Nor did the scandal starring the deputy Dalmases, her right hand, as a result of a TV3 program, help Borràs at all. On the other hand, her explanations of relevant details of the case for which she has been convicted have not been at the level of her eloquence.
Junts’ most popular lighthouse goes out and becomes a nuisance. Turull might stumble if he looks at the wheel instead of the horizon.
