Junts per Catalunya yesterday finished clearing the cloud of mystery that surrounded the party’s candidacy for the parliamentary elections on May 12. Former councilor Josep Rull, president of the national council of the post-convergent formation, will be number three on the list led by Carles Puigdemont and the strong man of the candidacy.
The former head of Territori i Sostenibilitat, who was imprisoned by the process and 1-O, but is now free of disqualification sentences after the reform of the Penal Code, appeared in all the pools from the beginning. In fact, he had been suggested as a candidate in case Puigdemont could not run in the Catalan elections. In front will be the businesswoman Anna Navarro, an independent profile linked to the economic field and new technologies, and behind will be the still president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, who was also initially placed in the noble places of the candidacy.
The director of the post-convergent campaign, Albert Batet, who has been president of the parliamentary group in recent years, will be the fifth and for the first time is running in the regional elections on the Barcelona list instead of Tarragona. Behind him are the writer Ennatu Domingo, who was already on the Junts lists in a discreet position in 2021, although she is not linked to the organic life of the party, and the spokesperson and vice president of JxCat, Josep Rius, who, equally that Batet is a leader close to Puigdemont. She was his chief of staff at the Palau de la Generalitat.
Judith Toronjo, a young profile, already a deputy in the previous legislature, will be in eighth place, and the also parliamentarian Glòria Freixa completes the top ten positions, among which another independent has been registered, the historian Agustí Colomines, who as a young He was secretary of the PSUC leader Josep Benet and in recent years he has been linked to the convergent and post-convergent world. He was president of the CatDem foundation – formerly Trias Fargas – and was close to former president Artur Mas and ideologist of the concept “the big house of Catalanism”. Later he was a senior official in Puigdemont’s executive and remained linked to the former Catalan president.
The former Minister of Economy and Hisenda, Jaume Giró, occupies eleventh place, and the also former Minister Lourdes Ciuró, who was head of Justice, is on the Barcelona lists. Former councilor Lluís Puig, who has also moved from Brussels to the south of France and has been a remote deputy in the last three years, is in thirteenth place. The list is closed by the former convergent mayor of Barcelona Xavier Trias, who in the municipal elections last May won the race in the Catalan capital, although he was unable to govern.
For the rest, deputies from the previous legislature such as David Saldoni, Joan Canadell, Mercé Esteve or Francesc Dalmases, as well as the leader of Democrats of Catalonia, Toni Castellà, repeat in the candidacy.
Who will not be on the list is Aurora Madaula, who denounced the leadership of the parliamentary group, and another parliamentarian similar to Laura Borràs such as Ester Vallès. Thus, the president will only have Dalmases and the organization secretary, David Torrents, in a prominent position, who is beyond twentieth place. Her environment, however, highlights the formation’s president’s harmony with independent profiles.
In Lleida, Girona and Tarragona, second places are also occupied by independents, as in Barcelona. Ignasi Prat, Carme Renedo and Jordi Bertran, respectively, and representatives such as Anna Feliu, Jordi Fàbrega, Maite Selva, Jordi Munell or Quim Calatayud, Irene Negre and others in more discreet positions, such as Francesc Ten, repeat.
The national council of JxCat will meet today in Elna to ratify the lists that the party executive validated yesterday and there will also be a rally in which a large influx of militants is expected, as already happened when the former president launched his candidacy, which is running under the umbrella of Junts Puigdemont per Catalunya.
Although the formation signed an agreement with seven smaller organizations, on paper, the only one that participates in coalition with JxCat is Demòcrates, the party that brings together the sovereigntists of Unió Democràtica de Catalunya.
In another order of things, sources from the party announced yesterday that Puigdemont has taken up residence in the south of France, in the region of Catalunya del Nord, in the Vallespir region. In this way, the return of the former president to Catalonia, which he announced a few weeks ago, to attend a possible investiture debate will not take place from Waterloo, but from the south of France, a few kilometers from the border.
The former Catalan president changed his residence at Easter and left the Belgian country, where he has yet to return to attend a plenary session of the European Parliament. In any case, the leader of JxCat has decided to put all his eggs in the basket for the Parliamentary elections and will not repeat as an MEP.
