Junts is set to leave Girona City Council's governing coalition on Tuesday morning, bringing to an end the pro-independence alliance that has run the Ajuntament, the city council, since June 2023. The move leaves mayor Lluc Salellas's Guanyem Girona and ERC, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, governing in a minority with about ten months to go before the next municipal elections.

For residents, the immediate effect is political instability at the top of the council, with the minority administration now more exposed in council votes and under greater pressure as the election timetable approaches. The split also ends the three-party arrangement that allowed Salellas to become mayor after the 2023 local elections, despite the PSC's Sdlvia Paneque having won the most votes.

According to reporting by Xavier Pi for ACN and El Peridico, Junts has decided to leave the executive and move into opposition. Gemma Geis, deputy mayor until now and Junts's candidate for re-election, was due to explain the decision at an 11.15am press conference on Tuesday 14 July.

Weeks of tension ended the 2023 pact

The break follows weeks of worsening tension between the coalition partners. On Sunday, Geis had already signalled the seriousness of the dispute in a newspaper article, saying her party's "patience" had run out, according to the source material.

Radio Girona, part of Cadena SER, reported on Monday that the crisis dominated much of the municipal plenary session. Both the PSC and the PP asked Geis directly whether Junts planned to break the governing pact. She did not confirm it during the session, but nor did she deny it.

"The position taken by Junts will be communicated when it believes it should be communicated and not in response to questions from opposition parties," Geis said, according to Cadena SER.

She also defended her party's right to make its own political assessment and decide whether it should remain in government or move into opposition, Cadena SER reported.

What Guanyem means in Girona politics

Guanyem Girona is the local political platform led by mayor Lluc Salellas. In Girona, it includes figures linked to the CUP, the pro-independence left-wing party. The 2023 agreement between Guanyem, Junts and ERC created one of the few broad pro-independence municipal coalitions of its kind and removed the mayoralty from the PSC after the election.

That agreement was struck in June 2023, when the three groups joined forces to make Salellas mayor and Geis deputy mayor. Earlier reporting cited in the source materials shows that the pact displaced Paneque, even though the PSC had finished first in votes in Girona.

Mayor defended the coalition until the eve of the split

As recently as Monday's plenary session, Salellas publicly argued for the coalition to continue until voters return to the polls next May, according to Cadena SER. He described the current administration as clearly pro-independence and left wing, and said it acted as a barrier against the far right and a defender of the Catalan language.

"In the current context I think it is the best political proposal there can be over the coming year, to continue like this until the people of Girona vote next May," Salellas said, according to Cadena SER.

He also used the debate to defend the government's record and criticised opposition parties for offering what he called lessons after being unable to pass budgets for long periods in other administrations.

  • Junts was due to formalise its exit on Tuesday 14 July.
  • Gemma Geis was scheduled to speak at 11.15am.
  • The coalition had governed Girona since June 2023.
  • The next municipal elections are due next May, around ten months away.

The immediate result is that Girona's government loses one of its three partners and Guanyem and ERC are left to manage the final stretch of the term without a majority in the council chamber.

Reported by Source Text Link, Xavier Pi / ACN, Sílvia Oller, Carles Couso, eldiarioes, Mariona Ferrer i Fornells, Tony Di Marino, Marc Rovira, ACN, Berta Artigas Fontàs, catalannews.com, Redacció SER, Marta Rodríguez, Judit Castaño, as.com, laSexta.com Actualizado: 29 may 2023 | 11:18 28 may 2023 | 18:00, Ara Cat.