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Salvador Illa is already the candidate to achieve the fourth consecutive victory of the PSC in the Catalan elections of May 12, after those of 2021 and the municipal and general elections of 2023. If there is a place in Spain where the socialists, scalded on 28- With the loss of almost all of their territorial power, they are exuding unusual confidence, it is in Catalonia. The years of process They caused a deep crisis from which the sister party of the PSOE has overcome to the point of setting itself as an objective, demanding all the spotlights without any concealment: to recover the Government that it lost in 2010 in the early elections of May 12 with a transversal project and a constructive discourse, without entering into open confrontation with the independence movement and focused on the improvement of public services. The electoral call coincides with the approval of the amnesty law in Congress, awaiting its processing in the Senate and final approval at the end of May in the Lower House, as the culmination of the “reconciliation” policy with which Pedro Sánchez, forced by the majorities left by 23-J, intends to “open a new time” in Catalonia and leave the territorial crisis behind once and for all.
“Catalonia will never advance alone or divided. Catalonia will move forward together. “It will be all Catalans of all political sensitivities who, with their vote, bring Salvador to the Generalitat,” Sánchez claimed to Illa, who in the last regional elections absorbed a large part of the Ciudadanos electorate and in the general elections attracted a large pro-independence vote. , at the closing of the PSC congress. An event planned for months, but which the 12-M polls have turned into the first major event of the Catalan election campaign. The calls for the concentration of the vote in the PSC as a guarantor of coexistence after the pardons and now with the measure of grace and with the reinforcement of public services resented by the process They have been constant.
“Socialism defends self-government to build desalination plants and confront drought, to reduce waiting lists in healthcare, to not be at the bottom of the PISA reports, but to be at the forefront [en educación]. In short, to build quality public services. “The PSC is going to play a fundamental role in the stage that opens,” Sánchez listed some of the problems that affect the daily lives of Catalans. And at that stage the socialists see themselves capable of breaking the bloc politics between right and left and also the division between the independence and constitutionalist votes. “The resentment, the resentment and the revenge are going to have a few acronyms with which they are going to be presented on May 12, but the progress and coexistence of Catalonia are only going to have a few acronyms, which are those of the Socialist Party and those of Salvador Illa as next president”, Sánchez settled.
Unlike the PP, which still has not confirmed Alejandro Fernández as a candidate, the PSOE’s pride in Illa transcends Ferraz and La Moncloa and has become widespread in the socialist universe. “We have a clear project for Catalonia, an ideal of coexistence and constitutionality that is only represented by the PSC and Illa,” Sánchez claimed in opposition to a right and extreme right with “a project of destruction, obstruction, polarization.” “What is the extreme right proposing? The permanent 155. And the PP? The dirty war and, now, the illegalization of the independence parties. That is, they propose a permanent state of exception in Catalonia.” “In the end, what they demonstrate, in addition to enormous frustration, is that they do not accept Spain as it is, plural politically, diverse territorially, where there are different languages recognized in our Constitution and also different cultures that are a active for the whole of Spain,” the President of the Government explained at the closing of the conclave, which was attended by 1,200 delegates and was one of the most placid in memory.
“Never forget, Spain loves Catalonia. And that is what we, socialists, defend. Unite Catalonia with the rest of our brothers and sisters from all the territories of Spain and also with Europe to face the great challenges we have,” Sánchez added, in a speech in which he defended the amnesty but without fanfare. “The pardons, the amnesty law, are instruments, tools with a clear objective, which is that of political normalization and coexistence. And when coexistence wins, economic growth wins, employment wins, rights, political stability, ordinary citizens win, who are to whom we owe and we are also working for them,” he justified the measure of grace. , which Congress approved on Thursday to continue its processing in the Senate.
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After collecting 98% support from the delegates for his new executive, Illa has insisted on building an alternative and turning the page on the process based on two ideas: the union of Catalans and the defense of public services so that they are his priority in the event that he comes to govern. Received with the cry of “president, president”, the candidate has defended that Catalonia needs a strong self-government “that unites and serves” and is committed to a plural and diverse Spain.” “The first task is to unite Catalans,” emphasized Illa, who this Saturday already tried to attract both autonomist, federalist and independence voters, ensuring that his goal is to return the excellence of public services, currently highly questioned by the lack of infrastructure to alleviate the water shortage, or the deficit in renewable energy, which places Catalonia at the bottom of Spain.
Aragonès does not see an agreement with the PSC viable
In the presence of leaders from other parties, including Josep Rius, spokesperson for Junts, and Josep Maria Jové, president of the ERC parliamentary group, Illa has claimed that Catalonia “has to get back to things — that is, prioritize management — and must advance “without vetoes” or “exclusions.” “Catalonia that wants to turn the page is asking for a way,” he stressed just at a time when the president Pere Aragonès insisted this Sunday in an interview in The vanguard that does not see a post-electoral agreement with the PSC as viable. “Your presence here is a message of respect, tolerance, commitment, fair play and respecting the rules and democracy. “I am committed to running a positive campaign with proposals,” she stated. In the closing there were no veiled or explicit allusions to the last meeting of the PSOE with Junts in Switzerland or to the demands of Carles Puigdemont’s party regarding an independence referendum.
The pacts, on which Illa does not comment, will be crucial because, although the PSC starts as a favorite in the polls, it is very far from approaching the absolute majority. In any case, the situation seems different from that of 2021, when the pro-independence parties signed an agreement in which they committed not to agree with the socialists. That document later remained a dead letter because they reached agreements in the Budgets or now in Congress. Aragonès stated this Sunday that he would not sign a document like that, which gives an idea of how intense the campaign will be. In it, the PSC will defend a position of centrality in which it will be the opponent to beat by the rest of the formations. Illa’s intentions to reach the Generalitat are that the criticism from multiple groups does not wear him down and that the amnesty among potential voters from Ciudadanos and the center-right does not wear him down either.
Sánchez has also referred to the controversy affecting Alberto González, partner of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and investigated for tax fraud. “We know what the homeland means to the right, we have seen it in Madrid. His patriotism ends in his pockets. There is nothing more unpatriotic than defrauding the Treasury, because with the taxes that we all pay we finance public hospitals, the education of our children, the dependency of our elders, the pensions of our elders… Therefore, from here, I tell the right, loud and clear, that less lessons in patriotism and more serving the country by paying taxes. “Patriotism is paying your taxes!” he attacked.
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