For what?”. The answer that was given after the Junts congress of 2022 when it was asked about the possibility of leaving the Catalan Government – included in the documents of the conclave -, depending on who was scrutinized, is the same that is given today when it is questioned about an eventual return to the Catalan Executive – which is not on the table -. October 7 will mark one year since the breakup of the coalition with Esquerra after the abrupt departure of JxCat, decided in a consultation with the militancy.
Now, in the midst of crossing the desert, the party led by Jordi Turull proudly displays that it occupies a central place on the political board and the first results of its negotiations with the PSOE in Madrid. JxCat asserts that he holds the key to governability in Spain and, moreover, it is expensive because in the general policy debate of the Parliament – where with the PSC the post-convergents have put the republicans in a compromise several times this year – his group was the most resolutions managed to pass. For this reason, the party is now standing as an “alternative” to the single-color Executive of ERC and claims that its postulates are also at the center of the political debate and it is the republicans who are now asking to negotiate jointly in Madrid; previously those who claimed it were Junts.
To get here, the formation has not exactly gone through an easy path and has experienced several turbulent moments that during these last two months seemed to have been left behind. The internal wounds left by the departure of the Generalitat and, at the beginning of this summer, the management of the post-electoral pacts of the municipalities, which caused discomfort in some sectors due to the loss of institutional power, have already healed with the sweet moment that the formation lives, despite the fact that everyone is aware that the situation can change again. The tonic has been one of cold and one of hot.
“We have consolidated the party and passed the exam”, point out voices consulted after this electoral cycle. “We passed a stress test”, they add.
In Barcelona, ??in the municipal Junts, Xavier Trias was the first force, even though he does not govern and the most important town hall that the party controls is that of Sant Cugat del Vallès. In the deputations, after a setback in the negotiating strategy, the party was left out of the supra-municipal government in Lleida, Tarragona and Barcelona. It is only there in Girona.
This was one of the reasons for the discomfort of intermediate cadres and part of the more pragmatic wing, which today no longer raises its voice. The management of Laura Borràs’ internal portfolio also caused discontent in Carles Puigdemont’s party.
But with the former president, who has no organic position, as the singing voice and bearer of the negotiating baton in Madrid, in a formation accustomed to internal noise, there is almost no polyphony and the criticism of the first days after the 23-J of the executive due to the lack of power of this body have been extinguished. The leadership of Puigdemont with Turull and a penumbra of leaders is for now unquestionable. There are those who consider that they have managed to have an orderly and cohesive party.
In this way, what could have been an annus horribilis for JxCat has taken on a different character in just a few weeks. Especially since there is water in the pool. During the campaign, the formation made a habit of repeating that if governance depended on them, nothing would be done as it had been done and today they point out that Catalan can be spoken in Congress and that work is being done to make it official in Europe, the ‘independence is out of Europol’s terrorist groups and amnesty is no longer a chimera. They contrast all this with the results of the Republicans in the previous legislature.
“Prudence and discretion” is the new maxim of JxCat. They think it’s getting them results. More than showing up every week. At the beginning there were doubts that the imposed strategy would work and its viability, but today no one is answering it and Puigdemont is transmitting the message.
In relation to the leadership, if there is no amnesty, the one who has the most numbers to be the candidate for the Generalitat is the former councilor Josep Rull, president of the national council, given his judicial situation, already free of penalties.
Another of the party’s own names, Laura Borràs, has fallen out of favor due to her judicial situation, although she is waiting for the Supreme Court to review her appeal. The leader, despite the internal criticism she has received this past year as a result of different episodes, continues as president of the party, but in a secondary role after having left the presidency of the Parliament. In Junts there were those who wanted to take advantage of his conviction to force him to leave the presidency, but the idea of ??keeping the party cohesive for the municipal elections prevailed.
Another of the unknowns is what role will be played by former councilor Jaume Giró, one of those who most opposed the departure of the Government. He intended to go to the primaries to be the candidate for Congress, but he withdrew after a message of support from Puigdemont to Míriam Nogueras.
