Guanyem, Junts and ERC will govern the city of Girona for the next four years. After days of negotiations, today they have formalized an agreement according to which Lluc Salellas (Guanyem) will be sworn in as mayor tomorrow. Gemma Geis (Junts) will occupy the vice mayor’s office.
Guanyem, with eight councillors, was the second force with the most votes, after the PSC, which won the elections by a narrow margin of 656 votes. In third place was Junts, which lost three representatives in relation to the last mandate, and ERC, which lost one, and was left with three.
After 28-M, the three formations had expressed the desire to form a sovereign government for the city. The three parties add up to 17 of the 27 representatives that the Consistory will have. The PSC, winner of the elections, will remain in the opposition, with eight councilors; the PP and VOX, with one each. For the first time in Girona, the force with the most votes will not govern.
The three groups that signed the pact have called a press conference at 12:30 p.m. to explain the details of the agreement. A government that the three parties have described as “strong”, “solid” and “stable”.
The future mayor, Lluc Salellas, who will hold office for the four-year term, explained that “the city had not had a government with strength and stability like this in 12 years”. “We want to guarantee stability and reliability to govern the city well on a day-to-day basis,” said the mayor of Junts, Gemma Geis.
In the previous term, Junts, winner of the elections, governed the first two years in a minority until the ERC joined in the middle of the term. Previously Junts governed in coalition with the PSC until the independence process shattered the pact.
The three parties have agreed to carry out a set of 64 projects for the city until 2027. In urban matters, the reform of Carrer de la Creu stands out, in agreement with residents and merchants, or the progress in the reform of the south entrance of the Barcelona highway or the reform and conversion of Plaza Catalunya into a pedestrian zone.
It has also adopted the commitment to allocate one million euros a year to the purchase of housing for social rental and another million euros to improve accessibility, as well as other major pending issues that term after term are repeated, such as the transformation of the Devesa park and of the Pedreres.
One of the controversial issues of the previous mandate, the percentage of tourist apartments that the city should have, seems to have been resolved in favor of Guanyem, who, already in the campaign, demanded a reduction of up to 4% in the maximum number of apartments that can be used for tourist use. in the whole of the city.
Of course, the licenses already granted are outside this regulation. In the last term, in which Junts governed, the plenary approved a maximum ceiling of 15% for all sectors of the city.
They also undertake to increase the staff of the Municipal Police and to act against criminal uses of the house, at the complaint of neighbors or ex officio and through technical reports that motivate the action.
Regarding the organization chart, there will be six mayoral tenures: three for Junts, two for Guanyem and one for ERC. The first will be for Gemma Geis, who will be in charge of the area of ??economic promotion.
The second, for the mayor of ERC, Quim Ayats, who will occupy the area of ??culture, sports and education, as he was doing at the moment. The third will fall on Cristina Andreu (Guanyem), who will lead the area of ??ecological transition and urban transformation.
The fourth will be for the doctor Xavier Aldeguer (Junts), in charge of the health and innovation area. Sergi Font (Guanyem), who is in charge of the resource management and citizen service area, will be in charge of the fifth mayoralty; and the sixth for Núria Riquelme, in charge of the area of ??services for people and coexistence.
The creation of a department of Catalan Language stands out, whose head will also be Riquelme. “At a time when there is a great attack on the language, it is a strategic issue for the city and the country,” said Salellas. All areas of government will be shared between the different forces.
Questioned by the future mayor about whether the population can understand that whoever governs is not the force with the most votes, Salellas has stated that “if we did not believe so, we would not be here.” He points out that the municipal government has “all the legitimacy” since it has more than 50% of the votes and 17 of the 27 city councillors.
