The Executive of Junts per Catalunya has chosen, for the moment, to slam the door on the offer of a pact from the Socialists in the Barcelona Provincial Council -where they have governed this term- and are now launching themselves to “draw an alternative majority”. This was confirmed on Tuesday by the party’s spokesman, Josep Rius, although without specifying with which parties specifically, without clarifying whether a possible failure of this new sum would imply reactivating negotiations with the PSC or whether it would include the Popular Party in those contacts. The plenary session of the Constitution of the provincial entity continues without a specific date and, for the moment, it would have to be after July 10, when technically the last session of this mandate has to be held.
The spokesman has not once mentioned his former partners in the Esquerra Republicana Government, who would have to play a key role in order to obtain that alternative majority. The Provincial Council has 51 seats and its regulations say that if no candidate obtains 26 votes in the first round, in the second round the person with the most support will be elected. PSC (17) and Junts (12) added very comfortably but with this slamming of the door and the well-known veto of ERC (11) to the Socialists, any sum that Jordi Turull’s men want to swing will have real possibilities in the second round.
The proximity of the general elections, with the independence movement wanting to make the rejection of the election of Jaume Collboni as mayor of Barcelona profitable at the polls, makes it very difficult for Junts to assume support in the Provincial Council. Rius has accepted that there is “a before and after” after the move that left Xavier Trias unable to repeat in office before the alternative sum of PSC, common and PP. “What happened is an example of bad policy. It was a State operation to prevent the independence movement from ruling the city ”, he insisted.
Rius also did not want to mention Tot per Terrassa (TxT) and has hidden behind the need to carry out the negotiations “with discretion” to avoid saying if there are already approaches. Jordi Ballart’s independent formation has only one deputy who would be key to tipping the balance on either side. PSC, common (5) and TxT would add 23 seats. Junts, ERC and TxT, too. In the town of Vallès, Ballart governed in coalition with the two pro-independence groups. “The Provincial Council does not belong to anyone, nor does it belong to the PSC”, he has insisted to mark distances, although at no time has he categorically ruled out that he could return to the scenario of repeating the coalition later.
Junts has achieved 336 mayoralties after 28-M, 274 of them with an absolute majority. The decision to close the door to the PSC means that in the Executive the sector aligned with the mayors and local leaders of the party, from which the majority of the voices advocating repeating the coalition in the provincial government, arose. If the PSC, which is also exploring an alternative majority, emerges victorious, Jordi Turull’s men will lose the great loudspeaker and source of local power that remained after the departure of the Catalan Executive last October.
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