The future of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, marks the pace of Spanish politics and the Catalan electoral campaign. There are 24 left for him to reveal whether he resigns or continues as head of the central Executive and Junts insists that this matter does not have to interfere in the contest for the Parliamentary elections on May 12. “We are interested in the future of Catalonia, not the future of a political party or a person. We are interested in the future of our children and independence,” said the post-convergent candidate, Carles Puigdemont, this Sunday at the rally with supporters of the two Valleses. “Catalonia will not be the float of the PSOE,” the former president proclaimed.
The leader of JxCat has stressed that these elections “are more about Catalonia than ever, the future of the Catalan language, the future of the educational system and the demographic future of the country” because “there is a low birth rate and a long life expectancy.”
“We have a colossal demographic challenge and we want to manage it from Catalonia. That is why we want powers in matters of immigration. All of this will not be solved by the PSOE or its delegate,” said the former Catalan president in reference to the socialist candidate, Salvador Illa, to who has once again reproached him for attending the PSOE federal committee meeting in Madrid yesterday Saturday instead of campaigning in Catalonia.
“They are not hiding […] They are more interested in talking to their colleagues in Madrid than explaining their proposals for Catalonia,” added the independence leader. “When the country or the game is at stake, they choose a game; between Catalonia and Madrid, they choose Madrid,” he concluded.
Likewise, Puigdemont wanted to send a message against abstention, which in the previous electoral cycle took its toll on the independence movement. “Abstention and the distribution of votes between pro-independence parties will help Illa to be president. If we do not concentrate the vote on the only force that has the capacity to win and lead, they are votes that in a certain way are for Illa,” summarized the post-convergent candidate, who also recalled that in 2021 the votes for the PDECat, more than 70,000, “went into the trash and did not obtain representation. “Let no one get confused, this only ends in two ways. Either we put the country in the hands of a tripartite who will go to Madrid to receive instructions or we put Catalonia in the hands of a president who goes to Madrid to give instructions and stand up,” warned Puigdemont, who has asked for “the decisive force to negotiate and put pressure” on the Government of Spain.
In this sense, the former president has warned the PSOE that JxCat will not approve the general budgets of the State in any case if the low budget execution in Catalonia and the fiscal deficit, which has been estimated at 20,000 million euros annually, are not reversed. “Now we have the button to press the Spanish State. That ability to say no. You already know that we say no when the interests of Catalonia are not defended and we will not approve any budget that will reverse this situation of injustice,” Puigdemont warned.
At today’s event, reference was also made to security policies. The former Catalan president has lamented that the Mossos d’Esquadra force “has its hands tied.” “It does not have the tools that all police forces in our environment have with citizen security powers. They cannot access databases and international coordination bodies to confront new forms of global crime,” Puigdemont stated. “The Catalan police are the least globalized in Europe because of Mr. Illa’s party,” he concluded.
Josep Rull, number three for Barcelona, ??recalled that the former Catalan president was dismissed by 155 in October 2017 and stressed that only “the people and the Parliament of Catalonia can remove a president of the Generalitat.” “These elections are also about that,” he continued. Likewise, he has promised a government with “good management” and has criticized the “fiscal deficit” and the “brutal level of dependence” on the State. “Salvador Illa cannot talk to us about good management because the PSC left the finances of the Generalitat devastated in 2010, with Line 9 of the metro and the stations that did not work,” said the former councilor and president of the national council of Junts. “That is supposed good management. Don’t let them come and give us lessons,” he concluded.
The spokesperson for JxCat in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, for her part, has taken pride in the fact that in the Congress of Deputies it is possible to speak in Catalan after the elections of July 23, after the agreement with the PSOE for the constitution of the Board. The leader has assured that the recipe for negotiating is “maintaining your position, knowing how to say no and not having complexes.” “We do not want a president of Catalonia who goes to Madrid to receive instructions. We want one who goes to Madrid to give instructions,” continued Nogueras, who has recovered one of her campaign slogans in the general elections. “This is about Catalunya, Catalunya, Catalunya,” she exclaimed.
Laura Borràs, president of the party, has assured that Junts “represents the most serious independence commitment” and highlights the resignation of others. “Not only have we not disappeared and we are here stronger than ever,” she concluded.
At this Sunday’s rally, to which the militants and sympathizers of Vallès Occidental and Vallès Oriental were summoned, the pavilion where JxCat holds its campaign events was overflowing, with 13 buses and every corner occupied. According to the party’s calculations, there were 1,200 people gathered. Taking into account that in the Jean Carrère space there were people from both Sabadell and Terrassa and the militants from Vallès Oriental, the poem ‘Corrandes de l’exili’ by Pere Quart, “com el Vallès no hi ha res”, have been the verses that have united everyone present throughout the day. “He is the great Vallès,” summarized former councilor Lluís Puig, from Terrassa.
The president of the Catalan Association of Municipalities and mayoress of Garriga, the former councilor of the Presidency Meritxell Budó, has rejected the idea of ??diluting the two Valaises in the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona in her intervention. Other ex-councillors from Vallès, Puig (Culture), from Terrassa, and Lourdes Ciuró (Justice), from Sabadell have taken part in the meeting together with the until now deputy Joan Canadell, who is from Bigues i Riells. All three are on the Together for Barcelona list. Ciuró has claimed a “good government” and has assured that “security and justice are the other side of the coin of freedom”. The ex-counselor has affirmed that they will propose that prison officers have the rank of authority in the next legislature. Canadell, in turn, has asked for “companies to companies” and a fair tax system “based on what Catalonia receives”, after Junts has included tax cuts in its program and its roadmap for the first 100 days . “Catalonia needs a government that works for the Catalan language and culture,” Puig claimed. “No se ha hecho nada, cero”, he lamented.
