Junts opens primaries to replace Xavier Trias as Barcelona mayoral candidate for 2027

Succession race begins

Junts per Catalunya begins the process of selecting its mayoral candidate for Barcelona's 2027 municipal elections this Saturday, with four candidates formally entering the campaign. The primary contest will determine the successor to Xavier Trias, who led the party's list in 2023, won the popular vote but was ultimately blocked from the mayor's office when Jaume Collboni of the Socialists secured support from Comuns and the PP at the last moment. Trias departed the city council in mid-2024, designating Jordi Martí Galbis as his successor. All four candidates have surpassed the required threshold of endorsements from at least 20% of the party's rank-and-file members and sympathizers in Barcelona.

The four contenders

Jordi Martí Galbis, the current Junts leader in the Barcelona city council, is positioning himself as the heir to Trias's legacy and the Convergència tradition, emphasizing his experience in both government and opposition. He frames tax reduction and security as priorities while warning against what he calls demagoguery on fiscal promises. Pilar Calvo, a deputy in the Spanish Congress and former TV3 sports journalist, describes herself as the most transversal candidate, insisting she is nobody's candidate and aims to be everyone's candidate. Glòria Freixa, a deputy in the Catalan Parliament and first secretary of the parliamentary bureau, and Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, the lawyer and former deputy known for his role in Carles Puigdemont's legal defense, complete the field. All four contenders are linked to the party's Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district organization.

It's going to be very tight.

I am nobody's candidate. I want to be everyone's candidate.

Internal party dynamics

The primary process has exposed tensions between the local party base and the national leadership. Puigdemont and secretary general Jordi Turull had spent months attempting to recruit former Catalan president Artur Mas or party spokesperson Josep Rius to run, hoping Martí would step aside. Both Mas and Rius declined, and Martí refused to withdraw, forcing an open primary. Rius subsequently renounced his candidacy. Calvo is seen as having the private backing of Puigdemont, as well as the support of her congressional leader Míriam Nogueras and lawyer Gonzalo Boye, who coordinates Puigdemont's legal strategy. She also serves as president of Junts' National Council. Martí, by contrast, controls the Barcelona federation and carries Trias's endorsement but lacks support from the party's national direction. The possibility of pacts and withdrawals among candidates during the campaign week has not been ruled out.

Campaign calendar

The campaign officially opens this Saturday, June 13, and runs through Friday, June 19. The climax will be a four-way debate at the ONCE auditorium in Barcelona on the evening of June 19, which will be open to the press. Voting by party members and sympathizers takes place on Saturday June 20 and Sunday June 21. The Comisión Municipal Territorial, the body overseeing the process, will issue a provisional result at the close of voting on Sunday, with the final certification scheduled for Tuesday June 23, once any possible appeals are resolved. Party regulations require all internal organs to remain neutral during the campaign period.

What is at stake

All four candidates have identified housing and security as the top priorities for Barcelona, though they have avoided specifying which post-election pacts they would pursue to form a government. Martí has explicitly ruled out agreements with what he terms extreme right and extreme left forces. Calvo has emphasized maintaining Barcelona's soul and preventing it from becoming a city that works against its residents, citing her record on legislation such as the ELA law and reduced social security contributions for youth sports coaches. The winner will face the task of rebuilding Junts' position in Barcelona after the 2023 disappointment, with the party currently navigating what ABC describes as one of the worst moments in its polling history.