The debate of the general elections of La Vanguardia and RAC1 has offered some first impressions of where the speeches of the candidates are going to go in this campaign of the general elections of 23-J.
ERC candidate registration change. Rufián abandons the confrontational profile and has responded with an outstretched hand for the agreement to the constant reproaches of the Junts and CUP candidates for the negotiating role of the Republicans with the Spanish Government. “Mrs. Nogueras, Mr. Botran, I am not his adversary in this campaign,” he said. However, Ruffian is Ruffian and naturally he has let go of some reproaches. To the CUP: “From the sofa at home it’s very easy, we don’t do everything right, okay, help us.” And a regret: “ERC has felt very alone defending Catalonia, while there were people who watched from the stadium, eating pipes. Let them come down to help ”, he said.
The socialist candidate needs to mobilize her own and Batet has been more forceful than in previous debates, even in tone. “Puigdemont has no credibility,” he said about the former president’s statement that he was offered a pardon, “that he answer to justice.” He has defended the management of the coalition government, in the face of continuous reproaches, especially from the Junts candidate, and has marked clear distances from the PP: either the president is “Sánchez or Rajoy”, he said, in a lapse, motivated by the vehemence. “Sorry, Feijóo.” She has been very clear in ruling out any pact to invest Feijóo: “In no case will we support a PP government,” she assured, recalling that Pedro Sánchez left his seat so as not to support Rajoy’s investiture and the entire PSC broke the discipline of the group and nay.
The Sumar candidate has exhibited the friendly style of Yolanda Díaz, “We campaign positively,” she has assured. She recalled that they have always defended the referendum, given Díaz’s statements that it was not the debate now. And she has made her purpose clear: “These elections are going to mobilize the people.” He has sought to confront the ERC candidate, whom he has reproached for saying “Catalonia needs a government that exercises our powers”, and on a couple of occasions has snapped “Mare de Deu, Gabriel” at Rufián, but he has dodged the face of expensive. She has defended the management of United We Can from the Spanish Government and has insisted on marking the pitch of the 23-J: “Excited that you finally understand that the elections are going to win the PP-Vox bloc”, she said. And she has asked the PP candidate if apart from repealing, “do you have any positive proposal?”
The Junts candidate must be recognized for her efforts to confront the ERC and PSC candidates, although she has abused her victimist tone and has failed to make proposals. “This legislature has been very bad for Catalonia, they have been four very bad years”, she has reproached Batet. And to Rufián: “In the defense of Catalonia we have found ourselves very alone in Madrid. She, with Batet, has been especially incisive regarding the “non-compliances” of the Spanish Government, and she has insisted on asking him if they will invest Feijóo: “Can you guarantee that they will not agree with the PP?” She has been surprised that Nogueras has not spoken about Puigdemont, although campaign strategies often try not to mobilize the vote of other parties. And the “Mr. Nacho” with which he has addressed the PP candidate when he defended that the tax burden in Catalonia must be lowered has been endearing. “Mr. Nacho, without resources it is very complicated.”
A new candidate needs to stand out in the debates. If they know him, they may vote for him or not, but if they don’t know him, they certainly won’t vote for him. And Muntañola has made every effort to make it clear that his proposal wants to be a continuation of the role that CiU played in Congress. He has said that they are willing to negotiate with the PP or the PSOE, “It is our obligation”, he has assured. And he has marked clear distances with the independence movement. “You are all very process-oriented. They talk about the Catalonia of 2017 ”, he said. And he has sought the support of former CiU voters: “We want to represent those people who feel orphaned, who are Catalan and who are tired of so much deceit for so long,” he assured. In the economic field, he has lamented that Catalonia is more to the left after the procés and has defended the CiU’s ‘peix al cove’ policy: “If they need us, they will go through the cash register. It is very difficult, but less difficult than other proposals that we have heard. The best agreements for Catalonia have come when it has needed to agree ”, he said.
Another candidate who blends in with the party leader. Listening to Martín Blanco it seemed that Feijóo was speaking, if anything more moderate, particularities of the electoral debate in Catalonia. He has emphasized the economic proposals, the need to lower taxes and has insisted on criticizing the Spanish Government’s management in this matter. He is one of those who has raised the most proposals. And he has said on two occasions that he has three children, he is the only one who has spoken about his family and he has done so to emphasize that “the economy must be recovered.” He has also turned the page on the process. “The concern of the vast majority of Catalans is not Mr. Puigdemont,” he said, and curiously it has been one of the few occasions on which the former Catalan president has been named in this debate. He has assured that the Catalans “feel proud to be the economic driving force and cultural vanguard”. And he has shunned at all times, except at the end of the debate, the confrontation with Vox.
The CUP candidate must have felt very alone in this debate. No one entered the confrontation with him. The reproaches have gone above all towards ERC, for its agreements with the Socialists. He has made Rufián ugly that because of the budget pact in Catalonia with the PSC “we have Hard Rock and the Quart Cinturó”, which is “the model of the country that the economic elites want”. And he has made him responsible for the independence movement losing strength and support among the Catalans: “It is impossible to achieve a mobilization of the independence movement with this model of the country.” There have also been reproaches for the PSC and En Comú Podem: “Our housing law, PSOE and UP have appealed it before the Constitutional Court,” he stressed.
The Vox candidate has complied with the expected script. He has denounced “Islamization, which causes problems of coexistence”, has assured that “Catalonia has lost seny, common sense, and has become la rauxa and confrontation” and has minimized climate change: “it is an obsession that Has no sense”. In this line, he has ensured that environmental policies are “cutting possibilities to those who have less, promoting the electric car to prohibit workers from driving diesel.” But, despite everything, the scenario that he has drawn has not been as terrifying as that of other spokesmen for the extreme right. He has spoken in Spanish and Catalan, and precisely in terms of language he has advocated “for harmony, without wanting to impose anything, for common sense”. And he has been convinced that Vox will govern: “Of course I will command, because the people of this country know where they are”, he has assured
