Pere Aragonès was close to passing, with a rating of 4.9 out of 10, in the CEO’s latest Political Opinion Barometer (BOP) published before the 12-M election call. A score close to the average (5.2) of those obtained by the presidents of the Generalitat in the same pre-electoral context since 1999.
Specifically, Aragonès finishes the term with a better rating than José Montilla (4.6), Artur Mas – in his second term (4.3) – and Quim Torra (4.1), the worst rated of all. Jordi Pujol (6.9), Pasqual Maragall (5.3), Mas – at the end of his first term (5.8) – and Carles Puigdemont (5.1) are the ones who passed just before the elections. For its part, the Aragonès executive is the third worst rated in the last quarter of a century (4.3).
The so-called approval index of political leaders that each wave of the Barometer contains includes the evaluations of several active politicians, including the figure of the president. The ACN has compared the scores obtained by the presidents and also by the Government’s action in the latest Barometers published immediately before a call for elections in the Parliament, since this survey exists, with a fair average pass in the evaluations obtained by the presidents Pasqual Maragall, José Montilla, Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and Pere Aragonès, and their executives.
In the case of President Pujol, he left office before the creation of the Center for Opinion Studies, and his assessments have been extracted from two opinion studies also prepared by the Generalitat and collected in the Public Registry of Opinion Surveys and Studies ( CONVICT).
Before the October 1999 elections, Pujol obtained a 6.9 and his Government was rated 6.4, the best rated of all. And in the last year of his mandate, before the 2003 elections in which he no longer ran, citizens gave him a 6.2 average grade, and a 6 for the actions of his government.
Artur Mas is the second highest rated president on the eve of the elections, with 5.8, before the November 2012 elections, called early after the failure of the fiscal pact with the Spanish president Mariano Rajoy. However, the action of his Government during the last year only touched the approval rating with a 4.9.
Pasqual Maragall obtained 5.3 before the November 2006 elections, elections in which the president no longer participated and which would give way to the second tripartite government, with José Montilla as the new chief executive. In addition, his government’s actions in the last year of his mandate were rated 5.5, the highest score an executive has received since then.
The third president who has passed the approval mark before closing the legislature is Carles Puigdemont, who was rated with a 5.1 (on the other hand, his government’s action was suspended with a 4.7). That CEO Barometer was published at the beginning of the turbulent autumn of 2017, shortly before the referendum, the declaration of independence and the departure of part of his Government into exile. The electoral call was on December 21 of that year directly by the then president of the Spanish government, Mariano Rajoy, in application of article 155 of the Constitution.
Quim Torra obtained the worst score, 4.1, at the gates of the elections of February 14, 2021, marked by the Covid-19 crisis and the disqualification of the president (September 2020) for a crime of disobedience . The Barometer was published, precisely, in November 2020. The action of the Torra Government also failed with a 3.8; the worst evaluation of an executive in the last BOP before elections to the Parliament.
As has been said, Artur Mas is the second president who has obtained the best rating (5.8) before elections to the Parliament. However, between 2012 and 2015 his rating declined. Shortly before the “plebiscitary” elections that the president called on September 27, 2015, after the prohibition of the 9-N consultation, Mas obtained a 4.3, and also the recent action of his government lost support in the polls , with a 4.1 (in 2012 it had obtained a 4.9).
Finally, President José Montilla obtained a 4.6 at the end of his four-year term. His is the only case of a president who suspends while the action of his government (in the last year of the legislature) receives approval. Specifically, and according to another CEO survey (the Barometer did not yet ask about the assessment of government action), the executive chaired by the socialist was rated 5.4, the second best score after the government’s 5.5. of Maragall.
In fact, the executive chaired by the socialist has been the last to overcome the barrier of 5 on the eve of an electoral call; since then, all have suspended.
