Catalonia has been decisive for Pedro Sánchez to have improved results and scratched two more deputies with respect to the previous general elections. The Socialists have endured in Spain, in large part, thanks to the votes obtained by the PSC of Salvador Illa, which has positioned itself as the first force in 65 of the 67 municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants and has obtained 413,000 more votes compared to 2019.
With 19 deputies they have swept 462 municipalities, something that had not occurred since 2008 when they obtained their best results with Carme Chacón, reaching 25 seats.
In these elections, the PSC has managed to deactivate the pro-independence parties and mark a difference of 13 seats with the popular ones. The results of the formation led by Illa are day and night with the PP. It is true that these have gone from two to six deputies, but at a time of decline of the independence movement they remain weak in Catalonia and are behind Sumar-Comuns, ERC and Junts.
Looking at the final photo of the general elections, it is evident that it is difficult to win in Spain without obtaining good results in Catalonia. To get to Moncloa it is essential to have the machinery well-oiled in the second most populous autonomous community, and the popular ones have been postponing a congress for years with which to put an end to internal battles and order the party in Catalonia. The electoral contest meant a truce in these internal struggles, which will foreseeably have to be resolved shortly if there is no electoral repetition.
In the end, the election of Nacho Martín Blanco, from Ciudadanos, has come too late to excite his electorate, who, fearing an alliance with Vox, have feared that things will get complicated in Catalonia.
It is more difficult for PDECat to reverse the failure of these elections. After being left out of Parliament two years ago, the Catalan center space has not been able to find its place and obtains poor results at the polls (31,687 votes). The electorate turns its back on them again to opt for Junts.
The next movements of the party’s leadership remain to be seen, which, despite having electoral rights, has lost its last opportunity to influence the governance of Catalonia. The ex-president Artur Mas, still a militant of the formation, had already advised the head of the PDECat list, Roger Montañola, not to appear in Congress. “It doesn’t make much sense to go dividing a space that, every time it has happened in recent times, has shown that it was leading nowhere,” he said.
The CUP is another of the great losers of these elections in Catalonia. He has lost the two deputies he had in Madrid and has not exceeded the barrier of 100,000 votes. Albert Botran’s option has not convinced, and yesterday he assured in statements to TV3 that it will be necessary to make “self-criticism”. He attributed the problems in which the pro-independence parties find themselves to the fact that there are no “objectives in the short or medium term”, and this leads to “disorientation and discouragement”. However, he pointed out that the CUP “comes from a historical trajectory” and with the results of 23-J “nothing ends”.
Also in ERC they are willing to make self-criticism. In the last municipal elections, 300,000 votes were left by the wayside and there was barely time to internalize the bad results before the imminent new electoral call. After losing six seats and not reaching 15% of the votes in all the constituencies in which they have concurred -they may be left without their own group in Congress-, the Republican general secretary and spokesperson, Marta Vilalta, assured yesterday that she will begin a process of internal debates to reflect on the results. “We assume the cost of leading and assuming responsibilities for the country with the mistakes that we surely make, which are logical,” Vilalta pointed out.
The Republicans attribute the drop in votes to the fact that the Catalans have voted to stop “the reactionary wave” of PP and Vox. They are the biggest losers from the useful vote of the left, which has benefited the PSC and also Sumar-Comuns, which has been promoted as a second force, concentrating 14% of the votes. Already during the electoral campaign, the Republicans sensed that the commons would be their main rivals to beat, apart from the PSC. Hence, they were the target of many of the criticisms of Gabriel Rufián, who did not appear yesterday to take stock of the results.
ERC and commons are now conspiring to call the “responsibility” of Junts to support the investiture of Sánchez.
