Jordi Martí has chaired the Junts municipal group in Barcelona since Xavier Trias left the City Council in July 2024. Even then, discussions began about the candidate for the 2027 municipal elections. The former CiU mayor backed his protégé within the neoconvergent ranks, who so far is the only one to have publicly expressed his desire to lead the list, along with other names linked to the party, such as Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas or Jaume Giró. The party leadership, however, leans in favor of Josep Rius, also a councilor in the Catalan capital, as well as a deputy and vice president of Junts. From Waterloo, they perhaps thought they could convince Martí to desist. Let’s see.
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Are you maintaining your candidacy?
I am maintaining it. And I have expressed this to the party bodies. I have followed all the internal processes and I think we have gone too far with the deadlines. I have a project for Junts in Barcelona, and I have a project for the city.
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How has the leadership taken your determination to move forward?
I think they were surprised; they did not expect it and did not quite know how to react. But I have done the only thing I could do: express my will to be the Junts candidate in Barcelona.
There are rumors that they have offered you lucrative exits to step back and clear the way for Rius.
We have been talking about this for many months and I prefer not to get into this topic. What is clear is that now there is nothing left to negotiate and it is the local and national Junts leaderships that must make a move. While this happens, Josep [Rius] should also make public his desire to be the candidate, since he has not done so yet and for primaries there must be at least two candidates. I hope the party calls them, we have regulations that establish this and I cannot imagine it being otherwise.
And then?
Then the territorial municipal commission must be constituted and three days given for candidacies to step forward. From there, there is the issue of endorsements, 20% of the membership. That is how it should be, I don’t even want to imagine that they are not called and that the decision is made outside the democratic process.
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Do you rule out Giró and Alonso-Cuevillas running in the primaries?
They made themselves available to the party, but they already said at the time that they would not do anything without the approval of the Junts leadership.
And no one can stop you now?
Politically it is very difficult, if not impossible, for them to ignore my pre-candidacy. Defeat in the primaries will leave me out, nothing more. I have been thinking about this for many months, and there comes a time when you must make the decision, which is firm and very well thought out.
There are also rumors about a possible conspiracy against Waterloo. Which would make you a sort of Trojan horse.
It is not true that I am challenging Junts. Neither with the leadership nor with anyone. My president is my president [Carles Puigdemont] and my secretary general is my secretary general [Jordi Turull], but I also owe myself to the legacy of Xavier Trias. I am not against anyone and I have told them this with these words.
Do you have Trias’s support?
The mayor has helped me a lot, as I also believe I helped him at the time. He asks me if I am convinced, if I see it clearly. When I tell him yes, his response has been clear: go ahead. Xavier [Trias] has always told me he is by my side. As have other members of the party and outside the party.
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