The full constitution of the Barcelona Provincial Council is the next hot potato on the Catalan political calendar. It will coincide with the general campaign of July 23, an appointment that can complicate and alter the normal course of the negotiations, also marked by the hangover of the constitution of the city councils last Saturday.
The PSC urges Junts to make a decision now and clarify if it is willing to reissue the pact between socialists and post-convergents, but in JxCat the debate is still open, and there is no rush. The party executive did not meet this week and, predictably, she will do so next Monday, but even on that date she might not settle the matter.
Today is the deadline to elect the councilors who will have minutes in the supramunicipal body, and the will of the Junts management is to also listen to their opinion before leaning towards one option or another, although the rejection has been gaining ground in recent days .
In the body’s post-convergent group, this legislature will have 7 to 12 members, four of whom are from the city of Barcelona: Neus Munté, Victòria Alsina, Joan Rodríguez and Francina Vila. Jaume Collboni’s (PSC) maneuver last weekend still hurts JxCat, which was left without the mayoralty of the Catalan capital, the jewel in the crown in the municipal elections, at the last moment, when Xavier Trias was already looking again with the joystick. But it must be borne in mind that the influence of the Provincial Council is relevant above all in small municipalities, those that are further from Barcelona, ??due to the ability to grant subsidies and aid to municipalities that have fewer resources.
For this reason, after the PSC and ERC pact in the Lleida and Tarragona councils, there is some concern among local officials and mayors of Jordi Turull’s formation. They consider that a pact should be closed to form part of the government of the supramunicipal corporation. Trias has already broken a spear in favor of the entente with the Socialists just a few hours after the disappointment in Barcelona, ????and asked his party to be “intelligent” despite the anger. However, in Junts there is debate and there are even pragmatic cadres that advocate not closing an agreement with those of Salvador Illa this time. It is not a pulse to use between the two souls of the formation.
At the JxCat headquarters they fear that an agreement with the PSC will cloud the campaign of the generals and dismantle their story now that they aspire to go ahead of ERC again, as in the municipal ones, and to consolidate an upward trend.
The pact seemed on track a few days ago, at the expense of what happened in the Catalan capital, but Collboni’s agreement with the commons and the PP to unseat Trias upset any forecast. “If the decision had to be made in a few months, another rooster would crow,” reason formation sources. “Now everything is very recent,” adduce these sources.
Meanwhile, the PSC threatens to seek other alliances to increase the pressure on JxCat. Although ERC assures that it will not support those of Illa in the Barcelona Provincial Council – it has agreed with them in those of Lleida and Tarragona, being able to join Junts –, the parliamentary spokesperson for the Socialists, Alícia Romero, affirmed yesterday that they will also negotiate with the republicans and with the commons, although he reiterated that his priority is to repeat the pact with the post-convergents. Romero is not the first to speak in this line. Other leaders of her party have also done it this week; in the PSC they do not understand the position of JxCat, especially when they have agreed in other local entities.
