Pedro Sánchez and the entire leadership of the PSOE are convinced that next Sunday the leader of the PSC, former minister Salvador Illa, will win the Catalan elections again. And even more forcefully than in the appointment with the 2021 regional polls, when Catalan socialism already reached 33 deputies, exceeding 23% of the votes. At Moncloa and Ferraz they are crossing their fingers so that the pro-independence parties do not gain an absolute majority this time, as happened three years ago, thanks also to a greater offer of electoral candidates in the sovereigntist space. And, although they assume that governance in Catalonia will be complicated in any case, they assure that Illa will have a free hand, without interference.
In the leadership of the PSOE they have thus come to terms this Monday with the recurring accusation of “branchism” that their electoral rivals attribute to the PSC, and have guaranteed the total autonomy of the sister party, despite the fact that it is an argument in which, Before 12-M, everyone from Alberto Núñez Feijóo to Carles Puigdemont has agreed. “Illa cannot be president if Sánchez does not authorize it,” said the leader of the Popular Party this Sunday in La Vanguardia.
The spokesperson for the PSOE executive, Esther Peña, has instead highlighted “the autonomy” of the PSC, not only until now but also starting next Sunday, with respect to the possible scenarios that may open up, no matter how much they may complicate the mandate of Pedro Sánchez and the course of the legislature in Spain. “The future of the government of Catalonia will be decided by the Catalans at the polls. And future agreements will be decided, of course, by Salvador Illa,” Peña stressed.
“It is the others who have to decide if they are going to support the PSC. It is the rest of the parties that are running in these elections that have to decide whether they are going to block or not, or if they are going to support the stability that Salvador Illa offers to the Catalans,” Peña has demanded. “Given the demographic consensus in which the PSC and Salvador Illa lead this race, the question to the rest of the parties running for election is: Are they going to block the stability that Illa offers for Catalonia?” he insisted.
“There is one issue that we are clear about, from the beginning, and that is that the next president of the Generalitat of Catalonia is called Salvador Illa. We are convinced that he will win the elections and that he will govern. And at this moment we are not considering any other scenario. Whatever happens, there is one thing that is certain, and that is that Catalonia has already turned the page on the years in which the public services of Catalans were secondary matters for its rulers. Salvador Illa arrives, and what affects the daily lives of Catalans will be at the center of his management starting next Monday,” said Peña.
The Ferraz leader has warned, in any case, that they are not going to fall “into the same mistakes of the PP and Feijóo with the demoscopy”, despite the fact that all the polls agree in predicting the victory of the PSC on 12-M. “We want the Catalan citizens to vote, and we hope from that decision to win and be able to govern. We have not started to distribute advice or ministries as the PP did before July 23. We always put respect for the popular will first,” she stressed.
Despite the fact that the five-day parenthesis that Pedro Sánchez opened in April to reflect on whether he was still at the head of the Government led him to suspend his participation in the first electoral events that he had already planned in this campaign – in Sabadell and in Santa Coloma de Gramenet -, the leader of the PSOE has tried to make up for lost time, once he decided to continue in office, with his attendance at the April Fair in Barcelona and two rallies in Sant Boi de Llobregat and Montmeló. Next Friday Sánchez will also speak alongside Illa at the closing of the PSC campaign at the Vall d’Hebron Pavilion in Barcelona. In Ferraz they set the objective of mobilizing the Catalan electorate that does vote in the general elections, but opts for abstention in the regional elections. And they consider that these voters are concentrated, fundamentally, in Barcelona and its metropolitan crown.
