The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is not finding acceptance for his call to the PSOE to facilitate his investiture, not even among the barons most critical of Pedro Sánchez, despite the fact that the alternative is the amnesty that the president intends to negotiate with Junts . The fact that up to now there has been no internal public response is explained by the endorsement at the polls of Sánchez’s policies on the Catalan question.
The victory of the PP in the last elections, municipal and autonomic and general, had a containment dam that has been crucial for the aspirations of the PSOE: Catalonia. Salvador Illa’s PSC won resoundingly in both electoral contests and has become an essential vote barn for the PSOE. In the general elections, Illa contributed the only clear victory for socialism in Spain and 19 seats –seven more than in 2019–, only surpassed by the 21 in Andalusia, and decisive for Sánchez’s aspirations.
This record of services allows the PSC to consolidate its position in the organic skeleton of the PSOE and in the political and economic structure that it treasures in the State Administration. In addition, the Catalan socialists believe that it is an endorsement to persist in the policies that Sánchez has carried out with the aim of “dismantling everything that happened in 2017”. And by the way, it makes it possible to “silence” the most “toxic” actors of the PSOE.
The amnesty that the PSOE is willing to negotiate with the pro-independence parties constitutes a betrayal of the position held by the Socialists up to now, including Illa. But “reality ends up imposing itself” in the face of “ephemeral statements”, they admit in the PSC, as happened with the pardons and with the penal reform.
With its success at the polls, the PSC boasts that the reunion agenda has been positively sanctioned by the citizens despite the reluctance of sectors of the PSOE. The resounding endorsement of the polls allows to silence mouths.
“That calm gives us a certain respect”, they value in the Catalan party, although they take it for granted that there will always be criticism from “the old ones”, the old socialist guard represented by Felipe González or Alfonso Guerra, and from leaders who advocate a greater centralism, like Emiliano García Page, the only baron who survived 28-M.
“The old ones can be toxic” but “our asset is the general interest” and “we are not going to enter into competitiveness”, they point out. The PSOE’s Chinese vases were broken on 23-J thanks to the PSC, but nobody boasts of it.
Illa has returned Catalan politics to the frame prior to the process and has become the baron with the most influence in Moncloa. His opinion counts a lot, favored by a very close relationship with the acting President of the Government. “This close relationship gives us many guarantees,” they say.
The PSC will not seek more presence in the decision-making spheres of Madrid. The objective is “the policies” related to Catalonia. At the end of next year they foresee Catalan elections, where they hope to “finish the position of turning the page”.
The amnesty is part of the solution, but the true objective of the PSC is the Generalitat, and to conquer it the challenge is to focus on management. The proposal for a debt reduction is in that line, like the improvements in infrastructure, in which Illa emphasizes due to accumulated deficits that feed “independence victimhood.”
