Esquerra Republicana has wanted to silence the noise of internal strife, before the murmurs become a roar. The party that rules the Generalitat will make official this Saturday the bet for Pere Aragonès to be the candidate for the next Catalan elections. The appointment that will be made public by the National Council, the governing body of the Republicans, will be pending ratification in primary elections that are considered a mere procedure, since Aragonès’s appointment has the approval of the general secretary of ERC , Marta Rovira, and the president of the formation, Oriol Junqueras. This is not a minor support, because in various circles of Esquerra the rumor has spread about the convenience of Junqueras being the one who appears as the head of the list. For now, the head of the party, pending the amnesty lifting his disqualification, chooses to withdraw into the command headquarters of the ERC apparatus and leaves the challenge of revalidating the mandate in the Generalitat to Aragonès. The calendar marks the appointment with the polls for the beginning of 2025. The polls place the socialist Salvador Illa as the outstanding favorite and predict that the pro-independence forces, ERC, Junts and the CUP, will stop gaining a majority in the Parliament.
“At the end of the day, this ends up being a matter of looking at the polls and choosing whoever guarantees better results,” a senior Esquerra official summarized before the Christmas break, when asked if he preferred Junqueras or Aragonès. In the latest survey published by the Center d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO), the Catalan CIS, Junqueras appears as the highest-rated political leader, with a score of 4.9, and 95% of those surveyed said they knew him. Aragonès is rated 4.6.
“The CEO also says that citizens approve of the Government,” now adds a person from the trusted circle of the Government. president Aragonese According to the barometer published in December, the Catalans give a 5 to the management of Aragonès and others counselors, the highest score of the three years of his mandate. Since, at the end of 2022, ERC and Junts broke up the government coalition, the Catalan Executive has raised its rating, going from a 4 in December 2022 to the recent approval. “Someone might think that in an election Junqueras would get a better result, but that would have to be seen. Aragonès is the active president and has a track record, it wouldn’t make much sense to bet on another candidate,” reasons the same source, who declares himself more oriolista what aragonesist.
“We are all aware that the application of the amnesty law still takes a long time and within the party it was taken for granted that Junqueras would have a very difficult time being a candidate,” says an Esquerra official. “By announcing Aragonès, the party deactivates the temptations that someone might have when it comes to creating an artificial debate,” he adds.
Junqueras and Aragonès have known each other for years. When the former assumed the position of vice president and economic advisor of the government led by Carles Puigdemont, he chose Aragonès as his right-hand man. The actual president He remained carrying out Government responsibilities while Junqueras was prosecuted, and convicted, for his participation in the organization of the 1-O referendum. “Their relationship has gone through different stages, and now it is in a good moment. But, it is not easy for you to get out of prison and see that what was your natural space is already occupied,” says a source from the Esquerra leadership.
“They have been friends for years, from when Aragonès was part of the party’s youth and Oriol was not yet in Esquerra. They have a relationship that allows them to say things to each other’s faces and reach an agreement. “It would be difficult for them to confront each other,” predicts a person who occupies a position of responsibility in the Government, and who has worked with both Junqueras and Aragonès. She insists that it is complicated for the two to become entangled in a public dispute for power.
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The recent changes that the Government has registered have fueled the idea that within Esquerra the movements are growing to put people of the highest confidence in each sector of the leadership in key positions. Josep Maria Aguirre, a lawyer with a reputation for fidelity to Junqueras’ guidelines, has been named the new Secretary General of the Economy, and Sergi Marcén has been relieved of his duties as head of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation, just one year after his appointment. Within the party’s organizational chart, dismissals and replacements have been precipitated in the communication area to design the strategy in the final stretch before the elections.
government action
With the debate over the candidacy cleared, Aragonès, 41, plans to throw himself into government action and deal with the fragile majority that supports him in Parliament, 33 deputies out of 135. The priority is to find allies to approve the budgets and avoid coming out badly hurt by the management of the drought suffered by Catalonia. The lack of rain will force the state of emergency to be activated shortly. Water restrictions are falling in Barcelona and the metropolitan area, with a population of more than 4 million inhabitants. In Girona, the closure of showers in municipal sports facilities has already been decreed.
Meanwhile, Junqueras, 54, is trying to sow territorial complicity and plans to intensify his visits to cities and towns in Catalonia, similar to the strategy that Jordi Pujol applied in his time as president to make his figure, and his power, visible in all regions. “After going to jail he has to regain the pulse of the party, he is reconnecting us a lot with the militancy,” indicates a voice close to the Esquerra leadership.
Elisenda Alamany, the current leader of ERC in Barcelona City Council, announced this Friday that she has begun negotiations with the government of Jaume Collboni and admits that the Republicans are, right now, at the “same level” as Junts and Comuns to become the first partner of the current municipal government. “The municipal government has 10 councilors and is weak. The meetings with ERC have intensified in the same way as with Junts and Comuns,” Alamany admits. “We do not know how these conversations will end and it is too early to speculate. At the moment we are talking about the city model and the concerns that Barcelonans have,” the Republican concluded.
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