At the PP headquarters in Genoa, they started the night calm, shaking off all pressure, and ended it euphoric. The party started from very low – only three seats – and had proposed to at least triple its results in 2021 with the absorption of Ciutadans – up to nine -. From there, everything had to be a success in a territory in which the popular people are aware that they have to improve a lot and which, they admit, made them lose the general elections in July.
But the 15 deputies obtained by Alejandro Fernández, who has obtained representation in the four provinces, allowed Génova to sing victory: “We are the party that has grown the most”, celebrated the secretary general, Cuca Gamarra, in her appearance, none at midnight
In addition, the PP managed to overtake Vox, and despite the fact that the far-right formation has resisted and maintains the eleven deputies it had, Alberto Núñez Feijóo sees his strategy endorsed in Catalonia, with a campaign in which the ruling barons thanks to pacts with the formation of Santiago Abascal – among them, those of the Balearic Islands, Aragon and the Valencian Community, the neighboring autonomies of Catalonia – have shone by their absence.
Tiptoeing through the amnesty in Catalonia – where it is already taken for granted – and leaving this letter for the European elections – a single constituency in all of Spain – has, according to Génova’s analysis, yielded good results. When the law is finally approved and enters into force, at the end of May, the time will come for the PP to redouble its offensive against the PSOE, and it has already called a demonstration for the 26th in Madrid, the fifth against the Government in this legislature.
Nevertheless, the party is moving forward, as in the Basque Country, where it gained one seat but did not reach 10% of the vote, but it needs to improve. In the general elections, it came close to half a million votes, ahead of ERC and Junts, and won six seats, but the rise of the PSC prevented Feijóo from reaching Moncloa together with Abascal and contributed to Pedro Sánchez not had to make the move. Now, a “stage of illusion” is opening, said Gamarra, who sees a “turning point” in yesterday’s polls in Catalonia.
In a preliminary analysis of the data, in Génova they attribute the new votes received by the PP of Catalonia to voters of the PSC who have moved away from Salvador Illa as it has gotten closer, they interpret, to ERC, which has delivered, they claim, to the PP the constitutionalist space that in its day flagged Ciutadans.
Without considering governance yet, the PP believes that “stability has not improved” and that the PSC is paying “a very heavy ideological toll” to win in Catalonia. “The future of Sánchez depends today more than yesterday on independence”, stated Gamarra.
