Salvador Illa’s PSC obtained the dream victory last night. It surpassed the psychological barrier of 40 deputies (it obtained 42, nine more than now), it comfortably beat Junts, its main competitor at the polls (by seven seats difference), and the independence movement was far from repeating the absolute majority. . The triad of conditions planned to make the path to the presidency of the Generalitat as practicable as possible was met and places Illa closer to being the 133rd president of Catalonia thanks to another variable that was at risk for much of the night. , the only “natural” sum that the polls yield, according to the socialists: the left-wing tripartite.
PSC, ERC and Comuns Sumar add up to the strict majority required of 68 seats to invest Illa, but the winner yesterday exercised caution and relegated references to the pacts. Only one thing was clear: as he promised during the campaign, the candidate will run for the investiture.
“The Catalans have decided that it is up to the PSC to lead this new stage and I announce that I assume this responsibility and that as soon as the new Parliament has been established I will express my willingness to run for the presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia,” Illa expressed in his last appearance. 11:00 p.m. from the PSC headquarters
The winner, welcomed with shouts of “president” and “visca, socialist Catalonia”, highlighted the magnitude of his victory: “After 45 years, for the first time the PSC has won the elections in votes and seats”, while The pro-independence parties have 61 seats and a little more than 43% of votes. “This allows us to affirm that the Catalans have decided to open a new stage,” he proclaimed.
The victory of the PSC was predicted, by a greater or lesser margin, by all the polls, and with last night’s victory, the party signs a quartet of electoral victories with Illa, whose resoundingness has gone further. Since the pyrrhic electoral victory of 2021, by 50,000 more votes than ERC, the PSC has been widening the gap with respect to its competitors. First in the municipal elections of May 2023, winning in all the capitals except Barcelona and strengthening the metropolitan fiefdom, and then in the general elections of 23-J, in which they achieved an overwhelming victory with more than 1.2 million votes and 19 vital seats for Pedro Sánchez to retain the presidency of the Government.
The good feelings that Illa had been expressing with some caution in the last days of the campaign were confirmed last night, with a victory based on the same embers as in the previous contests, that is, the strength of the PSC in the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona, ??where it won 28 seats (five more than in 2021), and in Tarragona, where it obtained 6, one more than three years ago.
The PSC results are also a boost for Sánchez and his policy on Catalonia. The amnesty and the rest of the measures adopted by the Government and the PSOE, not without few electoral costs, have been endorsed at the polls, and the decline of the independence movement relegates with the same firmness the demand for the referendum that they demand.
Illa did not want to overlook the role that “in particular,” he said, the President of the Government has had in his good electoral results. In his appearance he assured that the victory is due to several factors, but “surely one notable one has been the policies followed by the Government of Spain in Catalonia.” The candidate had the opportunity to share with the president his joy over the results and publicly sent him his “recognition and gratitude” for the “leadership that he has exercised” in the decisions adopted to date.
Illa also proclaimed the opening of a new stage “for all Catalans, whatever they think, whatever language they speak, wherever they come from or wherever they live,” and promised that “no Catalan will be left out of this new stage that we are opening.” today”.
As he proclaimed throughout the campaign, the PSC leader reaffirmed his will to “unite and serve Catalans by putting public services as first priority.”
“Catalonia is set to work, to function to lead Spain again”, proclaimed Illa together with party leaders such as Miquel Iceta, Núria Marín, Jaume Collboni, Jordi Hereu and Núria Parlon.
As a member of Illa’s team stated, aware that in the coming weeks we will only talk about tripartite but that last night he just wanted to celebrate, “it’s now or never.”
