President Pedro Sánchez is gambling much of the stability of his Government in Catalonia. The May 12 elections are the final test of the policy of reunion that has been plowing these years, first with the pardons and now with the Amnesty law. In a context of maximum polarization, the danger remains the cost of these measures if voters suspect that another concession may come in the form of a referendum. That’s why the president wanted to cover up this idea yesterday and simply opted to “reinforce Catalonia’s self-government”.
At the closing of the XV ordinary congress of the PSC, held in Barcelona this weekend, Sánchez supported the re-elected first secretary of the party and electoral candidate, Salvador Illa, whom he identified with the “constitutionalist ideal” that will promote the ” unity” in Catalonia from “self-government”.
The plan of the Socialists, therefore, calls for strengthening the deployment of the Statute, which the President of the Central Government recalled was mutilated by the Constitutional Court at the initiative of the PP, despite the fact that other autonomous statutes maintain articles such as those removed from Catalonia , as he recalled.
Sánchez pointed out a goal based on “what unites us”, and which, in his opinion, is the best recipe “to face the drought, the waiting lists, to return to the vanguard of Spain in the report PISA, to build quality public services…”, he indicated.
The defense of self-government is based on “the great lesson” that the process has left, that “Catalonia will not advance alone, nor divided” and “will only advance united”, he said. Likewise, he urged us to open “a new era uniting the Catalans with their Spanish compatriots”, because, as he assured, “Spain loves Catalonia, don’t forget it”.
But since he is aware that the amnesty is making a hole in the socialists, at least outside of Catalonia, the head of the Spanish Executive defended it against the right and the ultra-right, who only “propose a permanent 155, the dirty war, the illegalization of parties”, in short, “a permanent state of exception in Catalonia and Spain”.
And to the Catalan voters, Sánchez presented them with a disjunctive before deciding on their ballot: “Unite or divide, turn a page or not, advance or continue in a lethargy for having been in other things”.
After approving the new executive commission of the PSC with 98% of the votes and the appointment of the former president of Congress Meritxell Batet to preside over the national council, Illa took the floor in front of a packed auditorium, in the presence of the ministers Pilar Alegría and Jordi Hereu, and the first vice-president and deputy general secretary of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero.
The candidate addressed the pro-independence parties to demand that they not veto the PSC again, as they did in the 2021 campaign, when ERC, Junts and the CUP applied a sanitary cordon to the socialists who then, during the legislature, has gone in a hurry. “No vetoes and no exclusions”, he asked, because “Catalonia that wants to turn a corner is asking for passage”, he proclaimed.
After significantly assessing the presence of leaders of other parties in the socialist congress – ERC, Junts, les comuns and PDECat – Illa supported Sánchez’s bid for “a strong self-government” that leaves behind “the complaint constant”. And he sent the message that will be the focus of his campaign: “Turn over” to “unite and serve the Catalans”.
The PSC is now facing a long campaign, so long that there are those in the party apparatus who recommend Illa to take it easy: “If he disappeared until after Easter, better”. Much of the PSC’s strategy will be based on reinforcing a message focused on management, but also on convincing everyone that the amnesty will serve to definitively overcome the process, and not to return to 2017.
Governance will come depending on the result of ERC and Junts, but they do not fear a new sanitary cordon in the PSC. “It wouldn’t be credible”, they say, after the pacts inside and outside Parliament. What they are clear about is that the attacks that come from these parties benefit them: “Let them do it”, they challenge. And of course, the fights between them. “Resentment, grudge and revenge will have a few acronyms in 12-M, but coexistence only one, the PSC and Salvador Illa”, warned Sánchez.
