In a negotiation against the clock, yesterday the agreement was reached between the two main currents of Junts per Catalunya to present a joint summary candidacy for the leadership of the party at the congress to be held on June 4 in Argelers, in the south of France . By virtue of this pact, Laura Borràs, current president of the Parlament, will occupy the presidency of the formation, while the former minister Jordi Turull, one of the prisoners of the procés, will exercise the general secretary. This cohabitation of leaderships will be based on an equal distribution of executive functions, since Borràs made it very clear that she would not accept a symbolic presidency given that her will is to be in the nucleus that makes the decisions. This change will imply modifying the statutes of the organization.
Junts has avoided the risks of a congress of conflict between factions, a scenario that was not advisable one year before the municipal elections. Turull and Borràs have put forward their coincidences and have skirted their strategic discrepancies, of style and of the very conception of politics. Puigdemont’s step back as president of the party that was articulated around the figure and ascendant of him opens many questions, not only organizational. A stage comes to an end, also with the departure of Jordi Sànchez as general secretary and the farewell of Elsa Artadi, who was a key player in the creation and electoral consolidation of these acronyms.
With the political capital of Puigdemont in the background, Borràs and Turull face a challenge that includes several tasks: redefine a project that continues to have great institutional weight, rethink the strategy for the coming years, agree on a clear discourse, and unite a machinery with very different voices and sensibilities. The sum of former convergents, independents and cadres from the PSC and ERC has given rise to a brand that is defined more by its constant differences and clashes with Republican partners and rivals than by its proposals.
Will Borràs and Turull be able to give Junts a new run in the absence of Puigdemont and without colliding? It remains to be seen how they will reconcile a position on the continuity of the pact with the PSC in the Barcelona Provincial Council or even that of the same agreement with the ERC in the Generalitat, since Borràs was against it. The convergent tradition, from which a substantial part of this party originates, was based on the ability to effectively integrate diverse ideological sectors based on a clear commitment to pragmatism and centrality. At the moment, Junts per Catalunya oscillates daily between an institutional vocation and symbolic overreaction.
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