The universal census breaks the cordon sanitaire and puts Junts in a bind

Progressive parties in Parliament have once again joined forces to defend universal registration in Catalonia. PSC, ERC, Comuns, and CUP have committed, along with around one hundred organizations, to guarantee indiscriminate registration. The news has been the absence of Junts, who are increasingly seen as uncomfortable within the cordon sanitaire alongside left-wing groups.

Junts has realized that the "anti-fascist pact" signed at the start of the legislative session with PSC, ERC, Comuns, and CUP is a trap. The cordon sanitaire against Vox and Aliança Catalana not only fails to deliver results, but is actually benefiting these groups. Moreover, it is acting as an ideological straitjacket for Junts.

The post-convergents find themselves trapped in a contradiction. While they try to accelerate their shift to the right, they are constrained by the moral imposition of the left against the "far right." However, the issue of registration is a red line they are not willing to cross.

Registration: right or obligation?

Junts has refused to sign the Registration Pact, which will require municipalities to register people without considering the applicant's administrative status or requiring a rental contract. This highlights the distance between Junts and progressive parties. For these parties, registration is a right, while for the post-convergents it is a condition to guarantee safety and order in municipalities.

Several mayors from the group (in Figueres, Calella, or Martorell, for example) have led a campaign to toughen registration requirements. They cite safety reasons, since registration helps prevent cases of squatting and substandard housing. But also to prevent the collapse of public services.

It is clear that behind this debate lies the stance on immigration, which, along with safety, is the main issue of ideological division in Parliament. It is also clear that Junts is using this issue to compete with Aliança Catalana. This accentuates the contradiction of being part of the cordon sanitaire.

Junts usually argues that order is one thing and hate speech is another. However, the left uses their stance against universal registration to point to Junts as accomplices of the "far right." Or even as the "far right" itself.

Division within Junts

However, the debate also causes division within Junts, and highlights the internal tension due to their ideological diversity. Moviment d'Esquerres, the leftist current within Junts, led by Agustí Colomines and Toni Comín, has indeed signed the Registration Pact. 

It should be remembered that MES and Junts share a parliamentary group and strengthened their ties with the signing of an agreement last April. However, their ideological differences already caused a first clash over the reduction of the workday. Colomines's group described it as a "historic achievement of the labor movement," while Junts submitted a complete amendment to the law.

Now, leftists and convergents are clashing again within Junts over the controversy of universal registration. MES supports the Registration Pact because "it is linked to the demand for basic human rights that derive from social rights." Junts, meanwhile, distances itself for the reasons stated above.

For now, there has only been a formal adhesion, so it remains to be seen what will happen if there is a vote in Parliament. However, it is clear that the issue divides Junts and makes them uncomfortable in the current climate of social polarization in Catalonia.