The victory of Xavier Trias in Barcelona unleashes a cainite war in Junts between those nostalgic for the CDC and children of 1-O

Officially, Junts did not win the municipal elections in Barcelona on May 28; Xavier Trias did it for Barcelona, the very personal brand with which the former mayor hid the initials of the formation chaired by Laura Borràs when he considered that one recently convicted of corruption did not constitute the best electoral claim imaginable.

Junts per Catalunya agreed to kneel because in its ranks there was no more solvent candidate than Xavier Trias to try to unseat Ada Colau, as the results of the municipal elections ended up proving. And because the candidacy did not only seek to tear the Catalan capital from the arms of the leader of the commons, it also sought to test the reception among the voters of a return to the essence of the old Convergència.

Trias not only avoided any allusion to 1-O and the unilateral search for independence during the campaign, but also included in his list members of parties split from the defunct CiU, such as PDeCAT itself, the formation that Carles Puigdemont laminated precisely to create Together.

The result of the experiment was crystal clear. Trias managed to impose himself in Barcelona waving the flag of a supposed moderation and the promise to govern the city under the precepts of order and authority. And that strategy not only allowed him to overcome Colau -his antagonist- but also to surpass a PSC that went to the polls carrying the same banner and that managed to win in the rest of the provincial capitals and become, by far, the party most voted in Catalonia.

The consequences of Trias' triumph were immediate. After learning of the surprise call for general elections, the former Minister of Economy of the Generalitat, Jaume Giró, ran as a Junts candidate for Congress for Barcelona. He did so after Carles Puigdemont publicly supported the current leader of the neoconvergents in the Lower House, Míriam Nogueras, an undisguised member of the most radical sector of the party and especially close to the fugitive and Laura Borràs.

Nogueras and Giró were going to fight in a primary on June 8, but the former counselor withdrew his candidacy on Friday, after acknowledging that Puigdemont and the General Secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, had invited him to give up his efforts.. “Opening primaries now is not the best or most appropriate,” Giró admitted, who was suggested by the party leadership – the unofficial and the official – and that this was enough to back down.

But the former director of La Caixa did not miss the opportunity to ratify that the party is doomed to plunge into an internal war between those in favor of following the path marked out by Trias -those nostalgic for Convergència- and the sons of 1-O, sector in which the signings that Puigdemont incorporated into the party live after the illegal referendum to compete in the elections called in application of 155 and of which Borràs and Nogueras are prominent members.

Giró slipped, after resigning, that he has “his own vision of what the party's role should be in Congress” and that this vision “is shared by many militants, supporters and, of course, many Junts voters”. That vision goes through “making every vote of every Catalan in Madrid profitable” because “as long as Catalonia is not an independent State, we can do more things than claim independence,” added the former counselor to renounce the confrontation without nuances that Nogueras advocates, whose The most remembered gesture during the legislature that is now dying was that of removing the Spanish flag from the press room of the Congress of Deputies.

The next fight within Junts will take place next week, since the replacement for Borràs must be chosen at the head of the Parliament presidency, once on Thursday the seat was withdrawn. It is certain that the president of the party will demand to name her successor, asserting her organic position in the formation, which, in addition to the former mayoress of Vic, Anna Erra, puts the organization secretary of Junts, David Torrents, very close to the pool. to the condemned

Borràs is also actively participating in the negotiation with ERC to form the “common front” proposed by Pere Aragonès to “defend Catalonia” from an eventual Government of the Popular Party and Vox. He struggles to maintain his influence in the party after losing his status as elected office.

The definitive contest within Junts will take place within a maximum period of two years, with the designation of the next candidate for the Generalitat. With Borràs ruled out, Giró will again offer himself as guarantor of that formula that has worked so well with Trias. But so will Josep Rull, who after the reform of the Penal Code, was exonerated from his disqualification. His double condition of ex-member of the former Convergència and organizer of the 1-O, makes him gain ground. It is to be expected that the election will lead to a Cainite fight for the emergence of a third candidate blessed by Borràs.