Illa Presses Junts to Pick Sánchez or Feijóo Before Nov. 29 Vote
Catalan president Salvador Illa told Junts in Terrassa to say who it will back after the Nov. 29 general election. What he and Jordi Hereu said at the rally.
Salvador Illa, president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) and leader of the PSC (the Catalan Socialist party), told Junts to say openly whether its members of parliament will support Pedro Sánchez or a government of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Abascal after Spain’s general election on Nov. 29. He spoke at a campaign rally in Terrassa, according to elDiario.es.
Illa argued that voters in Catalonia have a right to know what Junts deputies will do. If the party does not say, he told the crowd, people should push those deputies aside by voting for Sánchez.
Illa’s challenge to Junts and Míriam Nogueras
Illa has criticized Junts at earlier rallies in this campaign, but in Terrassa he pressed harder. He urged the list headed by Míriam Nogueras to be explicit about its position and mocked one of the party’s campaign ads, which places Junts in the middle. “If you’re in the middle, you’re in the way, step aside,” he said, as reported by elDiario.es.
He also said the candidates of the PP (the conservative People’s Party) and Vox want to ban Catalan in the Congreso (Spain’s lower house) and cut back Catalonia’s self-government, while rejecting the financing arrangement. Illa asked the PP to stick to the truth and referred to meetings with lawyers aimed at buying testimony with money. The report gave no further details on those meetings.
Jordi Hereu targets Feijóo’s plan to scrap two ministries
Jordi Hereu, the PSC candidate for Barcelona, appeared alongside Illa. He criticized Feijóo’s plan to abolish the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Equality, which the PP leader announced in an interview with YouTuber Jordi Wild. According to Hereu, the PP had turned its national reconstruction program into “Demoliciones Feijóo” (Feijóo Demolitions).
Hereu called the Nov. 29 vote the battle of a lifetime and framed it as a choice between continuing to move forward and destruction. What is new in this election, he said, is the removal of rights. He had the audience repeat a line the Socialists have used throughout the campaign, presenting the choice as Sánchez on one side and Feijóo and Abascal on the other. He finished by asking voters to concentrate their support on the PSC, which he described as the direct path to making Sánchez prime minister.
What it means for voters in Catalonia
The PSC is campaigning on the idea that the votes of Junts deputies could decide who governs after Nov. 29, and it wants Catalan voters to treat the election as a straight choice between Sánchez and a PP-Vox government. Illa’s demand puts Junts under pressure to state its position before polling day.
Several of the issues raised at the Terrassa rally touch daily life in Barcelona. The PP’s plan would remove the national Ministry of Housing, and Illa accused the PP and Vox of wanting to limit the use of Catalan in the Congreso and reduce Catalan self-government. The financing of Catalonia is also part of the debate. Spain votes on Nov. 29.
Source: elDiario.es
