The first debate between the Catalan candidates for the general elections on July 23 ended with the pro-independence parties trying to escape the narrative that predicts a polarized campaign around the two major parties, PSOE and PP, and the their natural allies, Sumar and Vox, respectively.
This will predictably be one of the dynamics that the sovereignist formations will follow to mark their profile in the electoral campaign, although given the outcome of yesterday’s debate, organized by RAC1 and La Vanguardia, it can be assured that each of these formations will from their own trenches and with no spirit of collaboration, at least until the election result is known and the possible alliances on the right and left can be glimpsed. Although everyone talks about defending Catalonia and its interests… everyone wants to do it in their own way.
The common front that was claimed from independence the day after the municipal and regional elections, given the new political map for the whole of Spain, has not come to fruition at this time and yesterday the candidate of Leftist, Gabriel Rufián, pointed out several times that he had “felt very alone” in Madrid in the task of defending the interests of Catalonia. In addition, he assured both Míriam Nogueras (Together) and Aina Vidal (Sumar-En Comú Podem) that ERC is not the “adversary” that must be defeated in these elections. It was at the beginning and I had already received from both sides, from the two candidates.
“It’s true that we don’t do everything right. Help us; it’s very easy to criticize from the sofa”, the republican later replied to Albert Botran (CUP). Rufián, who has the difficult task of going back to the numbers of 28-M, criticized the anti-capitalists, who also criticized ERC’s negotiating strategy and its results, and the post-convergents who have spent the legislature “eating pipes” in the tribune, while Esquerra had managed to go ahead with the pardons for the nine pro-independence people who were in prison. He also alluded to progressive policies agreed with the socialists, such as the Housing law, despite the fact that in this matter both JxCat and the CUP regretted that the Catalan law had been undermined, appealed to the Constitutional Court by part of the central coalition Government.
“Having politicians who don’t realize until the fourth time that their hair is being pulled is absolutely inefficient”, Nogueras said, while questioning why Junts should support any government “after its repeated breaches”. A warning that the post-convergents send to the Socialists to make it clear that if it depends on them that Pedro Sánchez can form an executive, they will raise the price to support the investiture and demand payment in advance.
More clearly he said that he had, on the other hand, the PDECat-Espai Ciu candidate, Roger Montañola, who did not hide that he would have no problem supporting the PSOE or the PP, as long as Vox does not form a coalition. The objective, he said, is to achieve the maximum benefit of this alliance, whether with the parties of the right or the left, for the Catalans. Fish in the cave policy. “Go through the box”, he told them.
Despite the fact that part of the debate focused on pro-independence issues and the process, and that this week the sentence was announced that revokes the immunity of former president Carles Puigdemont, this issue was not mentioned at any time. However, the socialist candidate, Meritxell Batet, wanted to specify that Puigdemont had not met with socialist emissaries, as the former president himself had declared in an interview with RAC1. He assured that what he can say “has no credibility”.
Batet considered that what Puigdemont must do is to be held accountable in front of justice and defended the work of the PSOE to calm spirits in Catalonia after the process. In this regard, he accused the previous PP governments of not complying with the law when they allowed two illegal referendums and of being complicit in what happened in Catalonia in 2017. “We are in a new stage. Today we live like never before and Catalonia is growing like never before. The Constitution is being complied with”, he defended.
Faced with criticism for the lack of investment – Nogueras said that “Catalonia is worse than ever” -, the socialist candidate indicated that the central government is investing to “return to being the economic engine of Spain”. He mentioned the improvements that are being carried out in Rodalies and also the convening of bilateral commissions that were paralyzed for seven years with the governments of Mariano Rajoy.
For her part, Aina Vidal, from the commons, claimed the progressive policies and laws promoted by the central government. The Commons candidate tried on more than one occasion to focus the debate on the possible PP-Vox pacts, warned of the cut in rights that this “electoral ticket” entails and brought the debate to the confrontation of the blocs.
In the State as a whole this will be the dominant note, but Catalan singularity, still marked by the process and other fights, relegated on more than one occasion the dispute between conservatives and progressives, to which Batet later referred as a ” cultural battle”.
Vidal criticized the socialist for insisting on “concentrating” the vote around one candidate when it comes to coalitions. “It’s a lie and a losing argument”, he told him. In fact, both the leader of the commons and Rufián, when Batet claimed the useful vote, shook their heads, disapproving of the slogan. He agreed on this, since the two forces had some quarrels from the start, knowing that they share an electorate.
And if Vidal tried to calm the mood in the no-confidence motion block, on the right the harmony of PP and Vox was not like that. The beginning was distant between the two actors, but those of Santiago Abascal ended up getting closer to the popular, previous reprimand, when it came to the matter of pacts.
Martín Blanco, who mostly devoted himself to looking for Batet’s seams more than anything else, resisted the magarrufas of Aizcorbe, isolated on more than one occasion when raising debates in which no one entered , such as the Islamization of the center of Catalonia or security, which in the municipal campaign, more tangible, was the protagonist but now does not have as much circulation. “Don Pelayo”, they told him in one of these moments. The rest of the candidates also did not enter the cloth when he talked about the riots in France or when he described concern about climate change as an “obsession” when he assured that “it is ruining us”.
The outcome was not what Aizcorbe expected. The PP reiterated the mantra of the most voted list and made an offer to Batet to forge State pacts on various issues, such as education or the economy. The answer of the PSC is that they “go out to win” and that under no circumstances will they invest in Alberto Núñez Feijóo. In case anyone had doubts, the leader recalled that although the PSOE allowed the investiture of Mariano Rajoy in 2016, the Catalan socialists stood up and voted against it.
