It is not yet known whether Carles Puigdemont will play a role in the new Junts Executive, but it is already certain that the former president will take total power in the party next weekend, when the party will hold its congress in Calella. It’s not that the former president didn’t already have the last word in the formation when he wanted. But in recent years he has exercised his influence intermittently, thrust himself into the spotlight in some decisions, and maintained structures within the party that could work against him or his closest associates, at least in theory.
But if everything goes as planned, this will change from the Calella congress, if the leader chooses to take back the reins of the party as president or if he prefers to stay outside but develops a direction of his strictest confidence . Whatever happens, Puigdemont and the Puigdemontistas will occupy key positions in the new management. And this circumstance makes disappear the hopes that the government of Pedro Sánchez maintained that Junts would move towards post-Puigdemontism.
Since signing the agreement for the inauguration of Sánchez, in the summer of 23, Junts has been determined to demonstrate to the PSOE that he is not a partner on which it can count as insurance. And yet, within the Government, we have never stopped considering the people of Puigdemont as possible support. Among other reasons, because agreements have been reached with Junts on different subjects, but above all because with them the parliamentary sum becomes impossible.
Sánchez can afford not to rely on Junts, but he cannot govern against Junts. Nor is it pleasant to throw a party that is volatile, unpredictable, or indecisive. That is to say a Junts led on a daily basis by Puigdemont.
It is for this reason that since last spring, in socialist circles, including around the government but also the PSC, we began to fantasize about the possibility that amnesty could serve as a means for the Junts to change their position. step and disengage from the dynamic that shines in Waterloo. . The dream seemed perfect. A Puigdemont who returned to Catalonia to settle down, who focused on Catalan politics and who, knowing his lack of interest in the organic questions of the party, gradually allowed new figures to emerge, perhaps new internal currents, perhaps a generational change that would retire the 2017 Veterans…
None of this is expected to happen next weekend in the Barcelona town of Calella. Firstly because the amnesty was not applied to Puigdemont, which is why his return was limited to a fleeting appearance in Barcelona, including police ridicule. He has also not held the position of opposition leader that would correspond to him, but he is also delaying the decision on whether or not to be a deputy, even though he assured during the campaign that if he was not President, he would. withdraw from politics. And he even returned to live in Waterloo, after announcing the “end of exile”.
With this panorama, Puigdémontism not only did not calm down, but went from being the central path of Junts to that of the only possible one. With Laura Borràs deactivated and hers out of the game, without the moderate wing having been able to structure itself and with the figures of the old PDeCAT moving more towards the PSC than towards Junts, the party which aspires to become the central pillar of the ‘independence. movement It is an organization almost solely structured around the leadership of the former president.
Officialize the “de facto” discourse
During the last congress of the Junts, held in 2022, something unexpected happened. After an agreement between Borràs and Turull to organize a unity conclave, the then president of Parliament believed she had freedom of movement to occupy key positions in the party leadership. But the Turullistas created a surprise and showed in the votes a force capable of crushing the supporters of Borràs. The message was clear: even if Borràs would be president, Turull, general secretary, controlled the party.
Borràs’ isolation was even more pronounced when, after the general elections, Puigdemont took over the reins of the organization and created a steering committee outside the established structures in the party. A command bridge adapted to the taste of the leader and which has since that moment taken the main decisions of the party.
Seen from this angle, and according to a critical voice of the dynamic followed at Junts, what is expected from the Caella congress is that this leadership which has functioned “de facto” will now become the real executive. For this reason, the rise of the group formed by Turull, Míriam Nogueras, Albert Batet, Josep Rius and Mònica Sales is considered acquired.
Other rising figures, and also very close to Puigdemont, would be Toni Castellà, a former deputy who recently became the visible face of the Consell per la República, Salvador Vergés, a very popular deputy in Waterloo, or even Agustí Colomines, a man who was already the ideologist of Artur Mas, who appeared on several occasions close to the figure of the former president and who in this legislature reappeared as a deputy in Parliament.
Ups and downs with the government
There are paradoxical elements in the relationship between Moncloa and Puigdemont. To begin with, it was Sánchez’s interest in obtaining the votes of the Junts that brought the former president back into control of the organization, which until then he had left in the hands of Turull. But, in addition, Puigdemont’s participation was necessary for the strategic shift that led Junts to sign an investiture agreement to occur.
However, more than a year later, fears are growing within the PSOE that Puigdemont could become one of the main obstacles to a normalization of the Junts in Congress. Socialist sources believe that Puigdemont is attentive to a “personal agenda”, and not so much to the work that would correspond to a party which in Catalonia leads the opposition and which, in Congress, can be a cornerstone for issues such as budgets.
To top it all off, the arrival of Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat ended up upsetting the former president’s plans. “The idea of being allies to Madrid and enemies to Barcelona has already been tried by the ERC and it ended like this,” reasoned a few weeks ago a former convergent politician, who defended that the socialists and the Junts should opt for a single party. model of relations that would serve both Parliament and Congress.
