The leader of Junts was expected to tour Catalonia upon his return, but the crisis over housing decrees and the eviction of Maricarmen have complicated that plan. ERC, Comunes, and the CUP accuse him of blocking rental aid.
The return of Carles Puigdemont to Catalonia will no longer have the triumphant character that Junts had designed. The party's refusal to support the housing decrees of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, voted on October 1, has strained the political atmosphere and turned what was supposed to be a reivindicative tour across the territory into a much more uncomfortable journey, according to elconfidencial.com.
The original plan was for the former president of the Generalitat to travel around Catalonia to "feel and breathe the country," an intention he himself mentioned to the British newspaper The Sunday Times. However, sources close to the independentist leader admit that this scenario has been blurred by the housing crisis, which this week had its most visible episode in the eviction of Maricarmen.
Junts' decision to reject the decrees has provoked backlash from a significant part of the Catalan left. Parties like ERC, Comunes, and the CUP, which have supported the protests against rental issues to varying degrees, will not welcome Puigdemont with sympathy. In practice, only the PSC would maintain a neutral position regarding his return.
The discontent is not limited to the parties. Within Junts, it was already taken for granted that some minority sectors of Aliança Catalana would receive the former president unfavourably, a hostility that is now extending to other political forces.
"Feel and breathe the country"
According to sources from his circle, Puigdemont does not intend to assume the role of opposition leader in the Parlament, a position that would correspond to him as a regional deputy and which he himself has left vacant. He would be welcomed with open arms in the parliamentary group, but the leader of Junts is not interested in that role.
His horizon was to recover the figure of the "legitimate president" and use the tour to warm up for the upcoming Catalan elections in 2028. However, Puigdemont has never won a regional election; his only indisputable victory was in the European elections of 2019.
If Sánchez ends up calling general elections, Puigdemont's return will occur as the opening act for Míriam Nogueras, who would again head the Junts list. This was not the desired scenario for the party's president, who has gambled against the government president with the decrees at a crucial time for independence.
The electoral prospects are not entirely bad for Junts, although it is unlikely they can repeat the seven deputies they currently have in Congress. The advantage is that Aliança Catalana will not participate in those elections due to a decision by Silvia Orriols, which avoids direct competition for the independentist space.
The underlying problem for Junts is further away: not in November, but in May 2027, when the next regional elections will be held. By then, every eviction carried out in Catalonia will be attributed by the left to Puigdemont's party, a wear and tear that will condition their strategy.
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