“We are explicit. We would like others to be as much as we are.” In this way, Carles Puigdemont demanded yesterday in a press conference organized by ACN that Esquerra guarantee that they will not agree with Salvador Illa. For days, the post-convergent formation has been proposing the 12-M as a face-to-face between them and the PSC and warns that there may be “an alliance of the Catalan and Spanish lefts”. A tripartite “And we already know how they end”, pointed out the Junts candidate, who reiterated that his party will not contribute to Illa being president in the next legislature.
“We know that it is a matter of two, of Illa as civilian governor of the Catalan province or us leading the Catalan reactivation. There is no other option”, Puigdemont later affirmed at a rally, who defined the Socialists’ plan as “a low-intensity 155” to “pretend to govern Catalonia from Moncloa” and referred to Illa as the “man in black”.
The fact is that all forecasts foresee a complex post-electoral scenario in Catalonia, with vote fragmentation and the possibility of deadlock. Nevertheless, Puigdemont, who if there is a repeat election will be the candidate again, is confident of being invested in the second ballot, with more votes in favor than against, even if independence does not have an absolute majority. The ex-president claims that he is the candidate with the most options to be invested in the second vote, taking into account the political context and yesterday he pointed out that if they lack a handful of seats for the majority, the PSC “will know what to do”, taking into account that the central government needs the votes of JxCat in Madrid. “The PSC will know what it has to do and bear the consequences of its decisions, whatever they are”, he pointed out. “All will be legitimate, but all have consequences”, he said.
Puigdemont also assured that it will be in the first investiture debate in Parliament, which must be held in full on June 25. “I will be there in any of the circumstances”, said the former president, who referred to the first act of Pedro Sánchez’s campaign in Catalonia as “a change of candidate” for the PSC.
In another order of things, Puigdemont advocated for “commanding, making decisions and not being afraid of the banner”. In this sense, he assured that the expansion of El Prat airport is paralyzed “by the electoral interests of the PSC in the territory”. “In order to solve the problems of the Barcelona airport, one should not be afraid of the PSC elections in the territory”, he said, referring to the residents of Gavà. “This is what jams the airport”, he replied.
