The victory of Xavier Trias in Barcelona gave the appearance of success the discrete results of Junts del 28M. The mayors less identified with the irredeemable independence movement repeated majorities and in the towns where Esquerra forced pacts in 2019 not only away from the independence front but against nature, the strength of Jordi Turull recovered. And a little more. But in the second round of the municipal ones that are the pacts, the balance is much worse. Despite his reputation as a skillful negotiator, Turull has seen the Lleida and Tarragona councils, some regional capitals and some regional councils slip away from him, in addition to the Ripoll fiasco. The fact that everything has been sacrificed to support the CUP in Girona, the homeland of puigdemont, makes more than one suspect that the last word in these negotiations has been held by Waterloo. For this reason, discouragement is spreading these days among members of the leadership in favor of maintaining the pact with the PSC in the Barcelona Provincial Council, which is already preparing the possibility of a formula like the one given by the mayor’s office.
While, Esquerra seems to have reached the conclusion that against Together they lived better than alone. With the horizon of a PP-Vox government in Madrid, Pere Aragonès has launched a siren song to those of puigdemont and has designated them “preferred partners” in the negotiation of the 2024 budgets, something that he had already done in those of 2023 that a ‘counselor’ of Junts prepared. Thus, Turull has an emergency argument available to once again satisfy Puigdemont’s demands without the pragmatists slamming the door: they can be left out of the Provincial Council because they will not return to the Government at all and the chairs that are lost in one place will be won in the other one. So If the result of 23J is balanced between Esquerra and Junts, we can find their return to the north façade of Plaça de Sant Jaume as revenge for being rejected in the south. The Junts centrifuge has definitely started up with all the positive and negative energy it gives off Puigdemont: he has seized the victory of the moderate Trias to impose his hard line and return to the starting square that ended with the departure of Jordi Sánchez for agreeing with Esquerra. The moderate vote in favor of the most convulsive policy. I’m afraid that Trias’ “darn you” was not only for the benches that parked him from the mayor’s office, but also for the unredeemed who did not let him share the chair with Jaume Collboni and the living forces of the city who did not call rows to Daniel Sirera.