Two days before the end of the campaign, Salvador Illa steps on the accelerator to mobilize the socialist voter and gain support among the high number of undecideds that the polls point to. It is more difficult to catch other parties, but they all try and yesterday the PSC won points in this regard by announcing the support of former Junts councilors Miquel Sàmper and Santi Vila for Illa’s candidacy. Both were already far from the post-convergent orbit, but there is a stretch from here to catch up with the socialist rival, which they covered yesterday.
Sàmper was Minister of the Interior under the presidency of Quim Torra, in 2022 he became an active defender of the exit of Junts from the Government and ended up resigning from the party last February after the no of Junts in the Amnesty bill in Congress. Vila, who was in charge of Territory with Artur Mas and of Culture and Business with Carles Puigdemont, resigned when the government decided to bring the declaration of independence to Parliament.
Like Sàmper and Vila, more than 200 personalities from politics, culture and academia have joined Illa’s candidacy. The manifesto they have signed calls for a president “capable of representing the whole of the citizenry, who works to unite and avoid division, who is more dedicated to obtaining results than looking for trouble, who is committed to dialogue and cooperation and who avoid dispute and confrontation”. “We want a government that works, that faces the problems that have been ignored and is able to do well what has been done wrong”, they ask.
In line with the strategy of the last few days, Illa ruled out yesterday again speaking on possible pacts after May 12, in an interview with Ràdio 4, and once again asked Junts and ERC if, when the time came and if the poll forecasts are confirmed and the PSC wins, they will block his possible inauguration as president.
He also did not make clear the position in the face of an eventual majority of Junts and ERC that does not arrive to form a pro-independence government. When asked if the PSC will abstain to avoid the blockade, Illa merely reminded that this is the current situation. “They already have more deputies than me and it hasn’t worked”, he said.
The socialist leader also took advantage of the campaign yesterday to vindicate the figure of Josep Tarradellas, in an event held in Cervelló (Barcelona), the birthplace of the man who was the first president of the restored Generalitat, in which he was accompanied by his son, Josep Tarradellas and Macià, and his grandson Guillaume Tarradellas.
“Tarradellas is perseverance, it is constancy, it is stubbornness, what is needed today in Catalonia”, said Illa, who assured that he felt “recognised” in this style of politics. “Tarradellas is a pact, it’s putting public services at the center of politics”, he said, and it’s making politics “thinking about people”, he insisted.
