The role of Pedro Sánchez in the Catalan electoral campaign is essential, although it did not debut until this Thursday at a rally in Sant Boi de Llobregat. The start of the race, monopolized by Carles Puigdemont and his decision to return to Catalonia regardless of the outcome of the elections, has given rise to a debate on democratic regeneration and judicial lawfare in Spain due to the “harassment” that he claims to be suffering the president of the Government and his family environment; a debate that Sánchez fueled by claiming “clean politics” against the “mud machine” that he attributes to the right and the extreme right.
In the first major political act with the socialist militancy since his announcement to remain in office “with even more force if possible,” Sánchez reaffirmed his willingness to fight against those who have not yet “accepted the result” of the elections of last 23 of July. It was a harsh message and far removed from that promoted by Illa in Catalonia, focused on management and the improvement of public services.
But this Thursday marked 145 years since the birth of the PSOE, which Sánchez celebrated with a letter to the militancy whose content he reiterated at the Sant Boi rally. The president highlighted the work of socialism in Spain “for dignity in the face of those above” and warned that democracy “is not the territory of the powerful, but the lever of the humble people whom we represent.” And in the face of the “dirty game” of PP and Vox, he proposed that on 12-M “we beat the mud by voting for Salvador Illa.”
Sánchez admitted that his debt to Catalonia and the PSC “is eternal” as a consequence of the result of 23-J and promised to “work with Illa for the well-being, progress and advancement of the Catalans” after 12-M.
Socialist euphoria was unleashed in Sant Boi, a municipality governed by the deputy first secretary of the PSC, Lluïsa Moret, one of the mayors with the greatest leadership in the metropolitan red belt. Sánchez’s participation in the Catalan campaign has been a long time coming, but it is gaining momentum these days, first with the surprise visit to the Barcelona April Fair, yesterday in Baix Llobregat and tomorrow in Montmeló. And it is not trivial that the first leader he went to see after his reflective parenthesis was Illa, especially in the middle of the debate about his succession in the PSOE.
The president vindicated his policy in favor of coexistence, the preservation of rights, and social and economic advances. But the message of fighting against the “mud machine” finds no parallel in Catalonia and only translates into the red line that the PSC candidate draws against Vox and Aliança Catalana, and the scarecrow of a possible pact between Junts and the party. Catalan ultranationalist with the aim of elevating Puigdemont to the presidency of the Generalitat.
The PSC candidate shook that scaremonger yesterday in an interview on Cadena Ser, in which he opened the door to agreeing with Junts after the elections if the post-convergents do not prioritize independence. A useless possibility –Pugdemont immediately rejected it yesterday– but consistent with the PSC’s policy of pacts that has broken the blocks after the process. “It is the outstretched hand policy; “We want to reach an agreement with everyone,” they justify in the party, although it is also due to the strong position of the Puigdemont party in Congress.
Illa appeals to a “strong” government, but prioritizes “stability, social democracy and putting public services first” as criteria for reaching an agreement, and Junts “is not characterized by its social democratic policies,” recalled yesterday the number two of the PSC list, Alícia Romero.
The candidate praised Sánchez’s “courage”, “bravery” and “work” in Sant Boi “to get Catalonia back to normal.” “You have risked it for Catalonia and Catalonia is not going to forget it,” he guaranteed. But the candidate’s message had a different tone than the president’s, less harsh, positive.
Illa appealed to efficiency, to good government and warned that on May 12, “we will not choose who opposes Sánchez in Madrid”, but rather “who governs” in Catalonia. “For the first thing, anyone will do, to govern Catalonia, we have already seen that it is not,” he concluded.
