The blocs that have characterized politics in Catalonia for more than ten years, the Catalonia-Spain and right-left axis, have been finalized in these elections. The scenario has changed: Junts 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 from the Government has already forced ERC to look for other alliances outside the independence orbit and the last two budgets of the Generalitat were approved with the help of PSC and Comuns. It was then that some blocks that had maintained red lines and positions that seemed unalterable during the process began to crack.
In the final stretch of the campaign, the parties call for rebuttal and blur their 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 most visible that the borders between the pro-independence and right-left parties have been blurred with the aim of occupying a place with options in post-procés Catalonia or, at least not being irrelevant. Of course, the sanitary cordons are maintained for the ultranationalist formations and a new agreement is reissued –PSC, ERC, Junts, Comuns and the CUP– to now exclude the xenophobic Aliança Catalana, a party whom most polls already take for granted. that will burst into Parliament in the next legislature.
The most symptomatic dispute is between the three parties located furthest to the right. PP, Vox and Ciudadanos are fighting for the same electoral space and there is no respite in their speeches, but there is still room to try to capture the vote of the dissatisfied beyond immigration or “separatism.” Thus, the PP promotes the fiscal policies that its party applies in the communities in which it governs to appeal to the pockets of voters who aspire to a tax reduction.
The PP candidate, Alejandro Fernández, has on more than one occasion criticized the post-convergents for “buying” the economic policies of the CUP, while he was in the Government of the Generalitat. Last Tuesday, during the first block of the TV3 debate in which they could ask a question to a specific candidate, Fernández directly questioned the number 3 of Junts, Josep Rull, to ask him about the inheritance tax and also about the legislation on occupations.
At the same time that it maintains pressure for economic policies, the PP toughens its discourse so as not to deflate before Vox. The popular ones hope to improve results, at the same time they trust that Santiago Abascal’s party will reduce its influence in Catalonia. The statements by Alberto Núñez Feijóo in Catalonia in which he asked for a vote “for those who do not admit that illegal immigration occupies our homes” and which yesterday were endorsed by the general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, can be framed in this context of not lose steam
The same occurs with the references that the Vox candidate, Ignacio Garriga, makes to towns like Salt, where his party achieved four councilors in the last municipal elections and was positioned as the third force. The emergence on the electoral map of Aliança Catalana, which governs the town of Ripoll, could reduce their electoral expectations in a territory in which until relatively recently they had no competition.
The commons and the CUP are also maintaining a race for the green agenda and the effects of climate change. But the candidate of the commons, Jéssica Albiach, seeks hand-to-hand combat 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 intentions to agree 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 questioned about this issue yesterday in the Barcelona Tribuna, she wondered what Illa will do if former president Carles Puigdemont retires. “Will he make an agreement with Junts?” He asked himself. And she 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 use their influence in Madrid and aspirations to improve the financing of Catalonia, one of the core issues of the campaign, to mobilize the independence vote. They present themselves as the only defenders of what is decided in the Congress of Deputies and position 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 ignores the achievements of the Republicans and slips that they do not know how to negotiate.
A few days before 12-M, for the parties any vote is valid, regardless of where it comes from.
