As usual in recent years, with political fragmentation as the general framework, post-electoral pacts are the protagonists even before the campaign begins. Above all because all the polls predict that none of the three forces that on paper are contesting the first position – PSC, Junts and Esquerra – will have a sufficient majority to govern alone.
The vetoes that are now on the table and that require the removal of the first secretary of the Catalan Socialists, Salvador Illa, who polls have placed at the top for some time and who already won in 2021, could lead Catalonia to a scenario of blocking and electoral repetition that no one is ruling out. Despite the fact that it is premature to advance so many screens, independence might not have a majority and the socialists, for their part, could be left without enough support to articulate an alternative.
Illa refrained from speaking yesterday about a possible pact with ERC or JxCat after the parliamentary elections on May 12. On the other hand, he did make it clear that the only red line for building alliances will be the “hate speech” he attributes to Vox and Aliança Catalana. After participating in a race, the former Minister of Health also evaded the question and justified that it is a “disrespect for the citizens” to assess the agreements before they are voted on.
In any case, both Junts and ERC promise that they will not vote for the PSC in an investiture debate, although there are some in Esquerra who have openly raised the possibility of re-articulating a tripartite party – with the socialists and the commons -. All in all, this issue has sparked debate and cross-declarations in the republican formation between the ex-deputy of the Congress Joan Tardà and the deputy councilor and director of the president’s office of Pere Aragonès, Sergi Sabrià.
The post-convergents, in turn, look to polarize the campaign between Carles Puigdemont and Illa. Together, they consider that in the elections to be held in a month, it is possible that the technical tie between the two pro-independence forces of the last contests will be broken. In public interventions, Puigdemont assures that, if he becomes president again, it will be with a pro-independence majority that supports him in Parliament. For this reason, he has spoken of building bridges once again with Esquerra and of trying to improve a relationship that has been damaged and complicated for several years.
In response, the spokeswoman for ERC, Raquel Sans, complained yesterday that the former president spoke of “unity” in the campaign when the JxCat group did not support the Government’s budget in March.
Be that as it may, the fact that Junts says that it will not invest in Illa does not mean that there cannot be agreements with the PSC in the sectoral field. “I only want to have a majority in Parliament if it is pro-independence, I will not seek a pact with the PSC”, said Puigdemont a few days ago. “Another thing is that we agree piece by piece and we want to talk to everyone, but the parliamentary majority must rest on a clearly pro-independence project”, added the former president, who warned the socialists of the consequences makes the Spanish legislature a maneuver similar to that of the Barcelona City Council, with which they deprived Xavier Trias of the mayor’s office by adding the PSC to the support of the commons and the PP. “If so, they will know. It would make very little sense for us to support the government if its franchise in Catalonia tries to put sticks in the wheels of the will of the Catalans”, warned Puigdemont.
