Barcelona mayor captures primary

Barcelona Mayor Jordi Hereu won the Socialist Party's mayoral primary on Sunday, beating the region's former legal affairs chief Montserrat Tura to the nomination.

After a hectic two-week campaign, Hereu was proclaimed the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) candidate for the May 22 municipal election. Of the 4,214 votes cast, 2,484 went to Hereu, while Tura garnered 1,669.

"We have taken the first big step," said the mayor. "From now on we will continue pushing for progress in Barcelona." In total, some 12,000 Socialist voters were registered to cast ballots: 3,400 of them PSC activists and a further 8,600 supporters.

"Today, the PSC is a party that is much more independent than it was a month ago," said Tura, accompanying Hereu at a rally following the primary. The mayor than took the microphone and appealed to all members: "Today, I need all of you."

Sunday's results put an end to an unusual series of dilemmas facing the Socialists in Barcelona in a process marked by two divisive issues: the firm decision by Hereu with the support of the Socialist Federation of Barcelona to run for reelection and the equally tenacious determination by the PSC leadership to try to keep him off the ballot because of his poor showing in internal polls.

Tura maintained that she was not the candidate of the party's apparatus, and reminded voters that she had always been one of Hereu's harshest critics. Now Socialists are facing a new challenge: what consequences, if any, will result from the PSC primaries in the May election?

Carles Martí, the first secretary of the Socialist Federation of Barcelona, said that "we should all be proud of the transparency and normality of the process."

During Sunday morning voting in the district of Les Corts, Hereu took the opportunity to appeal for party unity. He said that he was "proud" of the primary campaign, and was again ready to "give everything for Barcelona." Tura, who served as commissioner for judicial affairs in the past tripartite government in Catalonia, did not vote because she was not registered in any of the Socialist groupings in the city. She is registered in Mollet del Valles, where she lives.