Catalan Socialists Open 29-N Campaign Pitching a Two-Way Race

The Socialists’ Party of Catalonia (PSC) opened its campaign for the Spanish general election on 29-N with a rally that described the vote as a choice between Pedro Sánchez and a possible PP and Vox government, according to Ara. Illa, the president of the Generalitat (the Catalan government), and Jordi Hereu headed the event at the Illa Diagonal shopping center.

Housing took up most of the speeches. The party argued that its record on rents, pensions and wages stands up, while it avoided topics that could cost it votes.

A message built around PP and Vox

PSC leaders grouped the Spanish right and far right together and said both put access to housing, pensions, Catalan self-government and the Catalan language at risk. Illa narrowed the election to two options: Sánchez on one side, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the PP and Santiago Abascal of Vox on the other. He said the latter two want to get rid of self-government.

Illa also turned on Junts, for saying it belongs to neither bloc. “If you are in the middle… step aside and don’t get in the way,” he said.

The criticism reached parties to the PSC’s left as well. Illa said the Broad Front, Podemos and Esquerra Republicana (the Republican Left) seem to have “given everything up for lost”. Hereu said they have split their own space. Illa urged voters who feel strongly left-wing to cast a tactical vote based on reasoning instead of the heart.

Housing and the government record

The socialists are in power in the Spanish government, the Generalitat and Barcelona City Hall, so they face criticism over rent increases in recent years. Raquel Sánchez, a former housing minister and the party’s Senate candidate for Barcelona, was brought on stage to defend that record. She said the measures work and that apartment prices in the Catalan capital have fallen.

Mayor Jaume Collboni said that had the right governed, rents today would be 400 euros higher. Speakers also credited the Sánchez government with raising the minimum wage and pensions and with lowering public transport prices. Illa defended the pension system as an exercise in solidarity, saying his salary and Hereu’s help pay for their parents’ pensions.

What the rally left out

Ara noted that the speakers skipped the topics that could hurt the party most at the ballot box. Rodalies (Catalonia’s commuter rail) and the AVE high-speed line did not come up, nor did the L’Aldea accident or the Ceuta crisis.

The acting minister of industry and tourism was the only speaker to give his whole speech in Catalan.

What’s at stake for the PSC

Optimism ran high among party members, according to Ara. Most polls predict a national defeat for the PSC, but the party expects strong results in Catalonia. It wants to beat the 19 of 48 Catalan seats it won in the previous Spanish election, although some polls forecast a drop. Those seats, together with the ones won by Esquerra and Junts, were decisive in electing Sánchez as president of the Spanish government.

Hereu said the party is not going to win the national vote but is aiming for a “historic victory for the PSC” in Catalonia.

Source: Ara