PDeCAT to run in local election as Junts per Catalunya

The leadership of PDeCAT party has proposed its members to run in next year’s local election using the name of Junts per Catalunya—the ticket that became the most voted pro-independence party in an election last December under the leadership of deposed president Carles Puigdemont.

Junts per Catalunya (Catalan for Together for Catalonia, and abbreviated as JxCat) encompassed Puigdemont’s PDeCAT party (standing for Catalan European Democratic Party) as well as independent candidates such as Catalonia’s current president, Quim Torra.

PDeCAT's general coordinator Marta Pascal said the party should follow JxCat's example in order to become "an open, dynamic, and plural project." The final decision on whether to use the ticket's name will be approved by PDeCAT's elected officials in a convention next summer.

Puigdemont created JxCat after Esquerra Republicana (ERC), another major pro-independence party, rejected running in the election together with PDeCAT. In the beginning, JxCat’s prospects were bleak.

Campaigning from Brussels, where he traveled after the Spanish government dismissed him following a declaration of independence, Puigdemont led JxCat in its astonishing rise in polls. The central idea of his campaign was simple: for the president to come back, he must win the election.

After a harshly fought election, pro-independence parties held on to a majority in parliament. JxCat surpassed ERC, thus awarding Puigdemont the right to retake his post and form a new government.

Spanish courts blocked all attempts by Puigdemont to be sworn in from abroad, and urged him to come back and face prosecution for his role in the independence bid. Two alternative candidates subsequently put forward are currently in jail. In the end, Puigdemont designated Torra as his successor. He was elected in parliament on May 14.

Formerly known as CDC

Once the main political powers in Catalonia, PDeCAT—formerly known as CDC— was rebranded in 2016 after its foundations were shaken by independence aspirations and corruption allegations.

PDeCAT’s president, Artur Mas, was the head of the Catalan government in 2012 when he galvanized the independence movement after the Spanish president Mariano Rajoy declined to give Catalonia a better fiscal deal.

According to a study by Catalonia’s Opinion Studies Center (CEO) in 2014, people gave CDC an average ranking of 5.64 in a 0-10 scale representing the left-right axis.