Although the polls are giving Alejandro Fernández’s candidacy – the PP now has three seats – substantial growth, the popular ones are prescribing caution in this start of the campaign in the face of elections with a Catalan and Spanish key. Prudence, but also “excitement in the face of a movement for change”, as Alejandro Fernández pointed out at the beginning of this campaign.
Firstly, the challenge of the formation is to recover the political weight, on the ground in Catalonia after the 2017 and 2021 elections, and to establish itself as the reference party in the barrier that they have drawn against the Catalan extrapolation of the “bloc of the investiture”, where they place the PSC, Junts and ERC. Alejandro Fernández thus seeks to gain the remaining electorate of Ciudadanos, recover that of the borders with Vox and also re-attract those who supported the PSC and who do not agree with the amnesty.
From Castelldefels, where the Popular Party started the campaign, the candidate has precisely focused his speech on the comparison between Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont. After the publication on Wednesday of the letter in which the president announced that he is opening a period of reflection on his future, Alejandro Fernández accused him, along with the former Catalan president, of “egocentrism, of thinking only of themselves.” And he has ordered them to “get out for the good of all.”
The general secretary of the Popular Party, Cuca Gamarra, has also focused her intervention on the need, she said, to “dismantle the alliance between the independence movement and socialism.” A message in which she has called on PSC voters to join Alejandro Fernández’s alternative.
The PP works to achieve a decisive role in the Parliament in the formation of majorities in a campaign that is also Spanish-ready. The results may condition the PSOE Government – pending Pedro Sánchez’s decision – and Alberto Núñez Feijóo is getting deeply involved in the Catalan campaign.
The PP combines moderation in tone, with harsh criticism of the process, to which it links the “decadence” of Catalonia. Feijóo will participate in eight events, and the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, and the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will also be present on more than one occasion. The PP, looking towards the general elections, knows that it must strengthen a solid project in Catalonia.
For this reason, the popular ones want to present themselves as a solid alternative with regard to the management of the Generalitat, not only with regard to the process, but also to leftist governments. The change in taxation in Catalonia, with a defense of the reduction of taxes, the educational model, the appeal for an increase in the police to face “insecurity”, the denunciation of the “occupations” and the measures to being able to put an end to them in 23 hours are, among other issues, the key issues that are being put on the table.
The PP will hold all its events in the street, seeking to mobilize its electorate. And to make it known that there are elections because the popular ones detect a certain fatigue after the intense electoral cycle last summer. A certain tiredness but also, as Alejandro Fernández has pointed out, an illusion for change.
