If the Junts party were a student at a business school, they would know that the conviction of its president is a problem that “must be turned into an opportunity”. In fact, this is what the pragmatic sector of this formation thinks, the same that fought to avoid leaving the Government and the same that sees the candidacy of Xavier Trias in Barcelona as the great opportunity to correct the strategy of confrontation in benefit of a possibilistic 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 has played since exile.
Despite the poor personal harmony between Laura Borrà s and Carles Puigdemont, both issue the same speech, and this gives wings to the former’s attitude of not resigning as president of the Parliament and, even less, of resigning from her organic position . This also explains the bombastic staging that Borrà s put on when he learned of the sentence, a photo with important absences – President Mas and several former councilors – and where some of those present made efforts to conceal 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 being part of the Cabinet chaired by Pere Aragonès, Jordi Turull puts the fear of the breakup of the party above any criteria. The proximity of the municipalities makes everything much more delicate and the general secretary tries to gain time. Who day passes, year pushes. All in all, Borrà s has become a nuisance for Junts’ local candidates, starting with Trias, and also a nuisance for the whole, to the extent that his personal vicissitudes end up determining the already complicated absence of a long-term strategy of an organization that oscillates between rebellious rhetoric and neo-convergent management autonomy (as practiced in the Diputació de Barcelona). It is one thing that the judicial fate of Puigdemont marks the compass of Junts, and another, very different, is that it is done by the conviction of Borrà s for crimes of fraud and falsification of documents (which, moreover, have nothing to do with the ‘1-O).
There was a time when Borràs appeared as the most powerful lighthouse in Junts. When he won the primaries, he looked unstoppable. The bases applauded him enthusiastically. But everything can go wrong. Last summer, at the tribute to the victims of the August 17 attack, the overacting and the lack of institutional sense betrayed it. An institutional sense that, as Magda Oranich says, should be kept in mind at this time. Borràs was also not helped at all by the scandal caused by deputy Dalmases, his right-hand man, following a TV3 program. On the other hand, her explanations about relevant details of the case for which she has been convicted have not been at the level of her eloquence.
The most popular lighthouse in Junts turns off and becomes a nuisance. Turull could stumble if he looks at the wheel instead of the horizon.
