Control by the Barcelona Provincial Council marks the battle of the parties on May 28

The Executive of the Barcelona Provincial Council, on September 11, in a commemorative act of the Diada.Carles Ribas

The official publication, on the 26th, of the electoral lists for the May 28 elections not only leave the political future of the City Councils black on white.

The intertwined organization of coalitions and acronyms in several municipalities also contains a greater interest: to be able to build the possible majorities to seize the power of supra-municipal entities, such as regional councils and, above all, the Provincial Councils.

The one from Barcelona will once again have a lot of prominence in this contest.

In a very tight scenario in the Catalan capital, any agreement will also very surely go through a pact there, the big Catalan parties confess.

The management of the provincial Executive led by the socialist Núria Marín, with the support of Junts, cannot be directly assessed at the polls.

The revalidation of that coalition -which already praises itself openly within the ranks of those led by Carles Puigdemont- depends on the panorama that emerges on 28-M and, especially, on the post-electoral pacts.

The parties elect their representatives for that corporation based on the results obtained in the 7 judicial districts in which the 311 municipalities of the province are grouped.

Of the total of 51 seats, the judicial party of Barcelona (also includes Badalona, ​​Sant Adrià and Santa Coloma) contributes 18, to be distributed among the forces that obtain more than 3% of the vote.

The one from Vic contributes two deputies, who are chosen proportionally to the result of 42 small municipalities.

The registered electoral coalitions allow, among other things, to maximize the results in terms of representation in the Provincial Council even if the specific name of the party does not appear.

For example, in the commons, the candidacies appear linked with the name Confluència.

While Ada Colau's ballot lists Barcelona en Comú - Confluència, in Badia del Vallès the candidacy is Tots fem Badia - Confluència.

The denomination Progrés Candidacy, for its part, corresponds to a coalition where the PSC is and in many towns there is not a trace of the rose emblem of the socialists on the ballots.

Those of the PDeCAT are under a local agreement and those of Junts as a Municipal Commitment.

For Republicans, the umbrella is the Municipal Agreement.

So that a party does not lose electoral subsidies,

Although there was an agreement between the candidacy of Xavier Trias and the PDeCAT for the Barcelona consistory, this is not reflected in the initials of the candidacy and in the other territories of Barcelona both forces are electoral rivals.

With unflattering forecasts at the polls, some form of articulation would have to be done in order, if necessary, to be able to add together to repeat the current coalition.

In the Republican ranks they do not doubt that the sociovergence will seek to continue if numerically possible.

Even more so after Junts suffered the effects of the decision to leave the Catalan Executive, losing a considerable share of power and media speakers.

Voces de Esquerra believe that Junts and the PDeCAT will have a difficult time revalidating the seven seats and they believe that their result in the most populated municipalities will be more modest than four years ago.

Even a victory for Trias, they add, would not be definitive either, since the scenario is very fair.

Within the ranks of the Oriol Junqueras formation they continue to lick the wound that allowed Junts to choose to agree with the PSC and not with them in the Barcelona Provincial Council, although both formations were tied at 14 seats.

The Republicans trust better luck this time because their representation is more uniform throughout the territory.

Even if they don't win in socialist forts like Santa Coloma de Gramenet, they believe that key votes are being won thanks to the figure of Gabriel Rufián as an opponent of Núria Parlón.

In the PSC they are confident that the municipal results will allow them to remain at the head of the Provincial Council and they clearly advocate maintaining the current pact.

Marín herself has come out to defend the pact that she maintains with Junts in recent days.

“What works should not be changed.

The result has been exceptional.

We have understood each other perfectly, ”she assured a month ago in an interview on

.

The Barcelona mayor's office, however, is the jewel in the crown that many parties see themselves with the possibility of achieving after 28-M and in the game of negotiation not only the provincial government but also the presidency of that entity will play a role important.

After the political speaker of the Diputación there is also an approved budget of 1,241 million euros.

The vast majority of this money will subsidize programs and infrastructures of the smallest municipalities and that, without supra-municipal support, it would be impossible to move forward.

One of the doubts of the elections is whether Junts and PDeCat will have been able to make their presence in the Executive electorally profitable.

There is also a list of 90 trust positions (26 of them to assist the provincial government) in contention, with salaries ranging from 2,700 to 6,500 per month.

There, among others, the former chief of staff of Laura Borràs in Parliament, Salvador Esteve;

the PSC spokesperson, Elia Tortolero;

the former mayor of Barcelona with Trias, Maite Fandos or the former deputy of ICV, Laura Massana.

You can follow EL PAÍS Catalunya on