SÃlvia Paneque’s PSC won in Girona, after twelve years of CiU and Junts government, by 656 votes, which is the distance that separated it from the second force, the Guanyem Girona municipalist formation, headed by Lluc Salellas. The socialists and the pro-independence formation, made up of social and neighborhood movements, and various parties, including the CUP or MES, tied for the number of seats, with eight councilors each. Both parties have significantly improved the results of four years ago, adding two more seats. An equality that makes Guanyem feel as legitimized as the winners, the PSC, to be able to govern.
Junts does not hide that its result has not been good (from nine to six councilors), a downturn that its candidate, Gemma Geis, attributes to the lack of time they have had to make their proposals known and also “to the wear and tear of the government that We have also paid.” Both the party that until now had governed the city with Marta Madrenas at the helm, and ERC, which entered the government in the middle of this term and which has lost a mayor, recognize that it is not up to them to make a move.
Many eyes are on what Geis can do, who in the campaign announced his preferences for an independentist government and is one of the few that has gotten wet in terms of pacts. He would only do it with independentist formations. “Nobody would understand a pact between Junts and PSC,” he stated yesterday. Sociovergence in Girona is not a rare bird. It worked, and very well according to its protagonists, before the process, in 2017, buried the pact signed by Madrenas and Paneque herself.
On election night, Salellas recalled that in these elections the pro-sovereignty forces are once again the majority. They add up to a total of 17 of the 27 councilors represented. “As a pro-independence city, the municipal government must be led by a pro-independence group or mayor,†he stated. Although he will speak to the PSC, Junts and ERC, they could have an advantage.
Paneque feels endorsed by the polls to lead the change. She believes that the people would not understand an independence pact to make Salellas mayor. She understands that “it is an unnatural pact after spending the campaign demanding a change” and she remembers that both Junts and ERC have been in the municipal government. With a possible sociovergence almost buried by Junts, Paneque would only have one option to add a majority. It would be a left-wing government with Guanyem.
