This morning the Popular Party of Catalonia presented the party’s complete candidacy for the elections to the Parliament on May 12. Alejandro Fernández heads the poster of the popular Catalans, after an arduous deliberative process in the PP around its number one. In an event held today in the Plaza de Europa, in Montjuïc, the candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat took a photo of the entire candidacy, accompanied by Dolors Montserrat, campaign manager, and Carmen Fúnez, deputy secretary of Organization of the PP , who has taken advantage of his visit to Barcelona to attack the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa.
“Salvador Illa, former Minister of Health and Sanchista candidate in these elections, will have to appear in the Senate investigation commission to make known everything he knows and give explanations,” Fúnez said in reference to the Koldo case mask plot. that affects the PSOE. “We have the firm intention of knowing the whole truth, regardless of who it affects,” he insisted and concluded that in the commission, which the PP has set up in the Upper House this week, “Illa has no escape.”
With the Catalan elections on the horizon, the PP has decided today to announce the third name on its list of appearances and confirm Illa, who joins the current president of Congress and former president of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, and the now Minister of Politics Territorial and former president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres. Fúnez has not specified the times, but the PP’s desire is for the aforementioned leaders to testify in the investigation commission as soon as possible, so the PSC leader could have to testify before March 12.
This morning’s event in Montjuïc has also served to show the party’s will to govern “for all citizens and for the entire territory”, staging this commitment with a group photograph in which the candidates have been placed forming the map of Catalonia. In presenting the candidacy, Fernández said that he hopes to achieve a “historic” result that will allow them to be “decisive” in the future of Catalan politics.
Likewise, the Popular Party candidate has expressed that this result will also allow “to end the process, as the first stone to end Sanchismo.” With currently three deputies in the Parliament, and after winning six in the last general elections, the PP considers it important to strengthen the electorate in Catalonia to reach the government in Spain. “ERC, PSC and Junts are the tripartite of power above the law,” Fúnez added. Today’s speech and the campaign involve equating these three parties as part of the “problem” in Catalonia.
The PP project, in the words of Fernández, seeks to end the “culture of no to everything that the left has promoted in Catalonia with the complicity of Junts.” In his speech he focused on the need to promote tourism and the industry, to put an end to those who want to “criminalize” them, security and occupation, education – compared to those who consider the educational system their “ideological laboratory” – , and also in the rural world, drought and economic growth.
“We only say no to projects that divide and destroy coexistence between people, that is why we say no to the process and no to the amnesty,” added Fernández. And he has taken the opportunity to appeal to PSC voters: “The amnesty is so divisive that even half of the Catalan socialist electorate strongly rejects it, we are also addressing them.”
The main attributes of the candidacy, which Fúnez explained, are “cohesion, freedom, responsibility and truth.” “Freedom from those who have made politics a table for sharing power among themselves,” said the Deputy Secretary of Organization of the PP. “In the coming weeks, we will ask the Catalans if they want more power for Sánchez, for Puigdemont and for Aragonés, or if they want more freedom for everyone,” she added.
In his analysis, Fúnez has pointed out that the objective of the independentistas has always been “to keep Sánchez in Moncloa”, because that is “the guarantee of their strength.” “Sánchez and Illa have become the greatest promoters of the independence movement,” he stated. “First was the amnesty, soon there will be an electoral debate on the other side of the border – after yesterday Pere Aragonès proposed a three-way debate with Illa i Puigdemont “wherever” and that the Junts candidate has established his residence in the south of France – and after the elections, it will surely be the referendum”.
Fúnez closed his speech by revealing that the PP will summon the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, in the Senate, where this week he established the investigation commission into the mask plot for the Koldo case, in which Koldo García is being investigated, former advisor to former minister José Luis Ábalos, for the collection of alleged illegal commissions on the sale of masks. “We have the firm intention of knowing everything that has happened, regardless of who it affects. I tell you that Salvador Illa will have to appear before the Senate investigation commission to make known everything he knows and the appropriate explanations,” he explained.
After the debate about Alejandro Fernández’s candidacy as number one, last week it was confirmed that he will continue to lead. The entire electoral list that has been presented today has been prepared with the endorsement of the national leadership and the assistance of Dolors Montserrat, and is a reflection of the situation of the party, without representation of the candidate’s entourage and with an eye on the congress that the popular Catalans must celebrate. Manu Reyes, the mayor of Castelldefels, in good harmony with Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Montserrat, will attend as number two. Numbers three and four will be, respectively, councilor Ángels Esteller and the general secretary and deputy in Madrid, Santi Rodríguez.
The number one for Girona will be Jaume Veray, close to Montserrat. In Tarragona, Pere Lluís Huguet, who arrived on the general list from Ciudadanos, will compete as number one, and Montse Berenguer, number one in Lleida, is the only independent on the popular list. Fernández closed the event by showing his pride in those who accompany him in this project and thanking the leadership of the national party and Dolors Montserrat for their support and the “tireless work” they are doing.
