The blocs that have characterized politics in Catalonia for more than ten years, the Catalonia-Spain and right-left axis, have been liquidated these elections. The scenario has changed: Together and ERC contribute to the governability of Pedro Sánchez in Madrid and, after the Catalan elections, Congress will definitively approve the Amnesty law.
The departure of Junts del Govern already forced ERC to look for other alliances outside the pro-independence orbit and the last two budgets of the Generalitat were approved with the competition of PSC and Commons Sumar. It was then that some blocks that had maintained red lines and positions that seemed unalterable throughout the process began to crack.
In the final stretch of the campaign, the parties play submissive and blur the borders to capture the vote of the undecided, those who decide their vote in the last days of the electoral race. It is now when it is more visible that the borders between pro-independence and right-left parties have blurred with the aim of occupying a place with options in post-process Catalonia or, at the very least, not being irrelevant. Of course, the health restrictions on the ultra-nationalist formations are maintained and a new agreement is reissued – PSC, ERC, Junts, Commons Sumar and the CUP – to now exclude the xenophobic Aliança Catalana, a party that most polls already take for granted that will break into Parliament in the next legislature.
The most symptomatic dispute is maintained by the three parties located furthest to the right. PP, Vox and Ciutadans fight for the same electoral space and there is no pause in their speeches, but even so there is room to try to capture the vote of discontent beyond immigration or “separatism”. Thus, the PP raises the tax policies that its party applies to the communities where it governs to make an appeal to the pockets of voters who aspire to a tax reduction.
The candidate of the PP, Alejandro Fernández, has more than once criticized the post-convergents for having “bought” the economic policies of the CUP while they were in the Government of the Generalitat. On Tuesday, during the first block of the TV3 debate in which they could ask a question to a specific candidate, Fernández directly challenged the number 3 of Junts, Josep Rull, to ask him about inheritance tax and also legislation on occupations.
While maintaining the pressure for economic policies, the PP tightens its discourse so as not to deflate in front of Vox. The populists hope to improve results, at the same time as they trust that Santiago Abascal’s party will reduce its influence in Catalonia. Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s statements in Catalonia in which he asked for the vote “for those who do not allow illegal immigration to occupy our homes” and which were ratified yesterday by the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, can be framed in this context of not losing strength.
The same goes for the references that Vox’s candidate, Ignacio Garriga, makes in towns like Salt, where his party won four councilors in the last municipal elections and came in third place. The entry into the electoral map of the Catalan Alliance, which governs the town of Ripoll (Ripollès), could reduce its electoral expectations in a territory where until recently they had relatively little competition.
The communes and the CUP are also running a race for the green agenda and the effects of climate change. But the Commons candidate, Jéssica Albiach, is looking for hand-to-hand with the Socialists and their defense of the Hard Rock and the expansion of the airport. Also for future post-electoral pacts. Albiach does not miss the opportunity to ask the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, about his pact intentions to form a government in the event that the socialists are the most voted force and the possibility that they end up joining Junts. When asked yesterday about this issue in the Barcelona Tribuna, she asked what Illa will do if former president Carles Puigdemont retires. “Will he agree with Junts?”, he questioned. And he recalled that his party abstained from the Barcelona City Council so that Jaume Collboni could become mayor, but the socialists do not allow them to enter the city government. The same has not happened with the Republicans once Ernest Maragall decided to leave the Consistory.
For their part, ERC and Junts wield influence in Madrid and aspirations to improve the financing of Catalonia, one of the core issues of the campaign, to mobilize the pro-independence vote. They postulate as the only advocates of what is decided in the Congress of Deputies and place Illa as a simple pawn of Moncloa. Thus, while President Pere Aragonès congratulates himself because the post-convergents are joining the path of dialogue with the central government, Puigdemont belittles the successes of the republicans and suggests that they do not know how to negotiate.
With only a few days left until 12-M, any vote is valid for the parties, no matter where it comes from.
