The choice of a candidate to run for the mayoralty of Barcelona has become an open-ended soap opera for Junts per Catalunya. The pro-independence party has gone from being the winner of the last elections, despite not governing, to having to deal with an internal struggle that the leadership wanted to avoid at all costs. Jordi Martí Galbis, a disciple of the last candidate, Xavier Trias, has reiterated his willingness to lead the municipal list, a decision that disrupts the plans of the JuntsxCat leadership, headed by Carles Puigdemont. The former Catalan president, after seeing the attempts to find a candidate outside the party fail, intended to promote Josep Rius without showing divisions. Martí Galbis has communicated to the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, that his commitment to run for mayor is firm.
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Junts has scheduled a municipalist day on May 30 in Vilafranca del Penedès with the aim of getting the machinery running ahead of the May 2027 municipal elections. The idea was to take advantage of the event to announce the names of the mayoral candidates for the main cities. The party won more than 300 mayoralties in the 2023 local elections; Catalonia has 947 municipalities, but it does not govern in any of the four capitals. Former councilors Gemma Geis and Violant Cervera have secured the number 1 spot on the list in Girona and Lleida, respectively, but the race remains open in Tarragona and, above all, has become tangled in Barcelona.
The core of Junts, overwhelmed by polls forecasting lower results, tried to find a candidate with public projection who could compete with guarantees in the Catalan capital against the PSC list led by Jaume Collboni. The leadership was offered to Joaquim Forn and, after his refusal, Carles Puigdemont himself tried unsuccessfully to convince businessman Tatxo Benet, one of the founders of Mediapro. Former Catalan president Artur Mas says he also received the proposal to be a mayoral candidate, and lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas has publicly put himself forward for the position.
After weighing the options, the Junts leadership agreed that they had to back Josep Rius, party spokesperson and former chief of staff to Carles Puigdemont during his time as president. However, Jordi Martí Galbis, a councilor in Barcelona for 15 years, has made clear his intention to fight to appear on the ballots. Martí Galbis, who prides himself on having joined Convergència when he turned 18, has the endorsement of Xavier Trias, who since leaving the City Council has repeatedly said he does not see a better candidate to succeed him than his right-hand man and campaign chief. Martí Galbis, a law graduate, was recently tempted to accept a position in Catalonia linked to a major company in the defense sector, but this option did not materialize.
The challenge to the leadership’s favorite opens the door to a primary process, a path Junts wanted to avoid because Martí Galbis has less public projection than Rius but is a veteran who knows well the ins and outs of Junts’ membership in Barcelona.
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