Perafort holds this Monday at 12:00 p.m. the plenary session in which the motion of no confidence will be debated that could remove Joan Martí Pla, from Junts, from the mayor's office, and place at the head of the City Council Jordi Cacho Pallarès, councilor of Tots Som Perafort i Puigdelfí AM, a party affiliated with ERC.
The initiative goes ahead if it gathers five votes in the municipal plenary. The majority that promotes it is formed by ERC, FIC and the non-attached councilor Elisabet Albujar, former member of Junts. If it prospers, Perafort will have for the first time in the 21st century a mayor other than Joan Martí Pla, who has held the position since 1999.
A change of majorities in a plenary session of nine councilors
In the 2023 municipal elections, Junts was the most voted list in Perafort with 46.88% of the votes and 4 of the 9 councilors of the consistory. Since then, the post-convergents have governed with a majority together with the PSC councilor.
The turn in municipal arithmetic occurred after the departure a few weeks ago of Elisabet Albujar from Junts, a movement that has proven decisive for the presentation of the motion. With the current sum, ERC contributes 3 votes, FIC 1 and the non-attached councilor another, sufficient to reach the necessary majority.
The legal change that allows the motion
The operation is framed within the doctrine established last summer by the Constitutional Court on no-confidence motions in city councils. Since last July, the so-called reinforced majority is no longer required to present these initiatives, after the high court declared unconstitutional an article of the electoral law.
With the previous regulations, in Perafort ERC and FIC would have needed six of the nine votes of the plenary for the motion not to depend on the unattached councilor. With the current criterion, five supports are enough. The Constitutional Court justified that change to guarantee the right to political participation and maintained that defection can be combated without distorting the motion of no confidence.
Cross-criticisms between parties
In the last plenary session, held last Thursday, Joan Martí Pla charged against the initiative and questioned its political legitimacy.
"It is undignified to reach the mayor's office in this way. It has been an honor to be mayor for 26 years and 10 months. This, you, will never be able to say because you do not arrive thanks to the trust of the citizens, but because of the betrayal of a councilwoman" - Joan Martí Pla, mayor of Perafort and councilman of Junts
The motion in Perafort comes days after in Tàrrega Junts joined the CUP to take over the mayoralty to the detriment of ERC. In that context, Esquerra's national leadership has expressed respect for local autonomy.
"We do not value alliances because the local reality is very diverse, complicated, and complex, especially in small places" - Santi Valls, Deputy General Secretary of Municipalism of ERC
From Junts, the president of the Vegueria del Camp de Tarragona, Quim Calatayud, has criticized that ERC opens the ban and accepts it in such a simple way, while also remarking that Joan Martí Pla has the full support of the party.
The PSC has also distanced itself from the operation. Fran Morancho, first secretary of the PSC in Camp de Tarragona, assured that there are no reasons to present the motion and announced that the socialists reject the proposal to enter the new government.
The outcome will be known this midday in the plenary hall of Perafort, where it will be decided if the municipality opens a new political stage after more than two decades with the same mayor.