The electoral campaign for the Catalan elections is about to end and the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezwants to reinforce as much as he can the idea that he and the socialist candidate for the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, they are a tandem. This was stated this Thursday in the Barcelona town of Vilanova i la Geltrú, in a rally that he shared with Illa himself and in which he assured that “with a socialist president in Moncloa and another in the Generalitat, Catalonia and Spain are going to be unstoppable.”
Sánchez’s third presence at an event during the PSC’s electoral campaign caused attendance forecasts for the rally to exceed. And the president did not hesitate to ride the wave of support that Illa is gathering – whom he referred to on several occasions as “Salva” – who, according to polls, will comfortably win the regional elections next Sunday. “O Salvador Illa or blockade, or understanding or discord, or progress or paralysis,” outlined Sánchez, who asked all Catalans tired of a decade of pro-independence governments to “concentrate the vote” in the PSC.
In this sense, Sánchez used one of the most repeated messages by Illa during his campaign: that Catalonia, “as Salva says”, has gone through “a lost decade” and “four pro-independence presidents” —Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and Pere Aragonès—who have not invested in public services. “I remember how two right-wing presidents, one in the Moncloa and the other in the Generalitat, led Catalonia and Spain to the greatest social bankruptcy of the last 45 years,” said Sánchez, who assured that, compared to that model, “with “a socialist president in Moncloa and another in the Generalitat, Catalonia and Spain are going to be unstoppable.”
The president also assured that, after his five-day break and his decision to continue leading the Government, he has “more desire and more strength than ever.” And he took the opportunity to once again charge against “the mud machine” which, he said, has its political expression in PP and Vox, which he put in the same bag: that of the extreme right. “To these elections in Catalonia More far-right parties have presented themselves than ever: the pro-independence extreme right (Aliança Catalana), the Spanishist one (Vox) and also Feijóo’s PP, which trivializes gender violence where they govern” and “identifies immigration with insecurity,” Sánchez denounced.
“Feijóo and Abascal are the acronyms of the same setback that PP and Vox represent in Spain, that is why I tell the Catalans that the best way to stop the extreme right, the independence movement, the Spanish movement and the PP, is to vote for the PSC and Illa as president,” Sánchez concluded. The president also vindicated the candidate’s work as a minister of his Government between 2020 and 2021, and boasted of having implemented policies such as “ERTE,” the protection of the self-employed during the pandemic or “the increase in the minimum wage”, many of which, however, were implemented after tough negotiations with Unidas Podemos, first, and with Sumar, later.
Illa: “We must continue mobilizing”
For his part, candidate Illa asked his supporters not to become complacent despite the significant advantage that the polls give him. “The work is not done and we must continue mobilizing, we must ask Catalans to go vote, we cannot trust ourselves, Catalonia has a lot at stake and we must make a massive call for mobilization,” insisted the PSC leader, who He repeated the same message that Sánchez had used as the axis of his speech: that his candidacy seeks to “open a new stage after a lost decade” in Catalonia.
“It’s about stopping obsessively highlighting differences,” and focusing on what “unites” citizens, Illa said. The PSC candidate also took advantage of Sánchez’s presence in Catalonia to ensure that he wants a Government that “will pitch in” to improve the “plural and diverse Spain” that, he said, the President of the Government is building. And he insisted that he, at the same time, will defend Catalan “self-government” and “institutions” so that “excellent public policies” are applied and that Catalonia is once again “at the forefront of Spain and Europe.”
