Divorces, especially stormy ones, such as the one that ERC and Junts experienced last October, with the departure of the post-convergent members of the Government, are usually accompanied, in the first phase, by a high emotionalitya mutual gut anger. Things, at least in politics, are tempering and, as can be seen in this week that we have been campaigning for the municipal elections, it becomes something more rational. The attacks that ex-partners direct at each other can be more or less harsh, but in no case are they ‘hot’: they know who and how to attack, as well as who they have decided not to lie to. And, of course, they choose the argument with which to try to electorally mow the grass under the feet of the former ally. In this case, both have opted for the same and accuse each other of collusion with the PSC to wear themselves out.
If we divide these municipal elections into two large territories, the ‘rere-país’ and the metropolitan region, the relationship between ERC and Junts is dominated by a curious mirror effect. In the ‘rere-country’, Jordi Turullbut specially Albert Batet and Laura Borras, They incessantly seek hand-to-hand with the Republicans, talking about plebiscite elections on the management of the Government. Borràs has criticized the sociovergence at rallies in Badalona, where Junts and the PSC govern together, in a multiparty agreement.
ERC omits any acknowledgment of post-converging darts. In the Barcelona area, especially in the Catalan capital, the only battlefield between the two, given the disappearance of Junts from the metropolitan area, with few exceptions, just the opposite occurs. It is Ernest Maragall who, without having Xavier Trias as his main objective, launches day in and day out invectives against the former mayor and his political space, be it that of Trias himself or that of Together for Catalonia. And, among them, that of the progressive ideological convergence with the PSC. Trias already presents himself as the winner and responds with self-sufficiency, inviting Maragall to join the change to throw out Ada Colau.
Harassment and demolition of the PSC
However, Trias does not focus the Republican strategy on Barcelona. ERC has articulated its entire campaign in a harassment and demolition of the socialists throughout the country. “It is with the PSC that we are contesting the elections,” says a voice from the party who recalls that in the last municipal elections Junts added half the votes that ERC.
Meanwhile, Trias does the opposite of the leaders of his party: showing great harmony with the PSC. On the Junts command bridge they claim that Barcelona is “a world apart“.”Everything is complex, municipal life is polyhedral“, they allege. Another way to explain it is that Trias set his conditions, non-negotiable, to be a candidate. Among them, that he will agree with whoever it takes to govern and that he will not follow party strategies such as criticizing ERC or sociovergence.
Esquerra focuses its attacks on the socialists in Catalonia, except in Barcelona, where it confronts the Trias
The ERC attack on the socialists, PSC and PSOE, is adaptable to the territory. Thus, in the Catalan capital, he focuses on the supposed shift to the right of the party. “Something that could be intuited when seeing their demands to approve the budgets, a casino and a highway”, caricatures a republican voice, “and now palpable with the alignment of Jaume Collboni with Ciudadanos and the PP, not to go any further, with the Bonanova affair and the anti-occupation office”. Republicans also detect a “twinning of the mayor of the PSC with the powers of the ‘establishment” which equates it with Trias. That is, two attacks for one. To Collboni for Trias and to Trias for Collboni.
Rodalies and drought
In the metropolitan territory the accent is placed “on the null management capacity of the Socialists, for example, in Rodalies or the drought& rdquor ;. “Besides & rdquor ;, continues this voice, “confronting the PSC is also investing in attracting Junts votersbecause it connects with the demobilized pro-independence voters or with those who have believed the lies that the post-convergents throw that we are delivered to the PSOE”.
Why are Trias attacked in Barcelona, but not Junts in the ‘rere-país’? “It is important, if we want the mayor’s office, to be the independence referent. And with the campaign that Trias has raised, the electorate must be made to see that there is no other secessionist candidate than the ERC one,” says another Esquerra strategist. And he expands: “In the ‘rere-país’ the fight with Junts is not going well for us. It demobilizes the pro-independence electorate, especially ours. People disconnect and no longer listen to us,” he concludes.
Junqueras modified the script
The reading of this entire strategy has not been linear. On the night of the start of the campaign, the main attack, and furious from the ERC leader, Oriol Junqueras, went towards Junts and Trias for including “people who abandoned Catalonia and the Government shortly before 1-O“. Various sources agree that what was planned that night was to attack the PSC. In the end, Junqueras modified the script: “No strategy, no heck,” a member of the leadership points out with amusement. Of course, since then, the The president of the party leads the operation to attack the PSC, with all his dialectical arsenal. Pere AragonesBecause of the institutionality, it uses a different tone, although as the campaign progresses it loosens up. Like on Friday in Vic when he lashed out at Junts from whom he said he did not accept lessons on the drought “after leading the ACA for 11 years.” However, the difference between Junqueras and Aragonès on the lectern, they say in the party, “is not a cold distribution of roles, each one has internalized his role,” says this source.
The post-convergents charge against the republicans, but in Barcelona they offer them to govern and wink at the PSC
Junts sees ERC “nervous”
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The vision of the Junts leadership is that Junqueras’s attack responds, according to a post-convergent leader, to the fact that they are “nervous” because the electoral forecasts are not optimistic, neither in Barcelona nor in other key cities. “They have tried to buy mayors, they have made small threats…”, maintains a prominent JxCat leader, who admits that he bit his tongue when Junqueras launched the attack.
“But if they continue to pass, we will have to talk in depth in the last week of the campaign“, he slides. So Junts is going to continue charging throughout the territory against ERC with issues such as the management of failed oppositions, the drought or the pacts with the PSC, although the socialists are the ones who, for the Junts candidate in Barcelona, They share the same economic model with him.