Junts' intention from the beginning has been to polarize the Catalan electoral campaign between its candidate, Carles Puigdemont, second in most polls, and the PSC's candidate, Salvador Illa, who is first in the polls; and even at some point with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. To date JxCat has avoided attacking Esquerra excessively and has tried to present the May 12 vote as a plebiscite between Puigdemont and Sánchez and the post-convergents believe that now, by revealing the President of the Government who will remain in Moncloa, it gains strength that scenario. “This has just further polarized the campaign between Sánchez and Puigdemont, especially when Sánchez makes an appearance in Catalonia,” they maintain.
In the previous weeks, the formation has exhibited the figure of the former Catalan president as the only one who can "stand up" before the central Executive to "defend the interests of Catalonia" and his first no to the amnesty as an example. Puigdemont himself has fed that message these days, always emphasizing that both Illa and President Pere Aragonès, ERC candidate, are not in that same position.
With Sánchez, due to his absence, as the main figure in the early stages of the contest, JxCat understands that now the campaign pivots on the coordinates they drew. Puigdemont's formation, unlike his former partners, has been little condescending to the head of the central Executive. Puigdemont, in his first reaction, invited him to submit to a question of confidence and the party assured these days that it would demand from Sánchez or, if he had resigned, from the socialist candidate who had replaced him, the same thing that was demanded in November for the investiture. “We did not plan to change the script even one comma and now we have verified that everything was electoralism,” party sources point out.
The party did not take long yesterday to accuse Sánchez of “interfering” in the Catalan campaign and of maneuvering through “electoral tactics.” It was Jordi Turull, general secretary, who brought out the artillery from Argelers, from the party's electoral headquarters, and called it "serious irresponsibility" that the president of the Government had tried to "use emotions about the suffering that unworthy media harassment represents for "do electoral tactics."
In the previous days, while Sánchez overshadowed the campaign, instead of showing empathy Junts, he has reproached the socialists for not having had it with the independence movement in the years after 2017 and they have repeated ad nauseum that the elections to the Parliament are of Catalonia “more than ever” and that they will not be “a float for the PSOE”, as Puigdemont stated on Sunday at a rally. “We are interested in the future of Catalonia, not the future of a political party or a person. We are interested in the future of our children,” she exclaimed.
Now JxCat expects a “Catalan response” at the polls and asks to concentrate the vote to avoid a tripartite vote. “The farce is so obvious that it will help us mobilize undecided people or people who were considering abstention,” say consulted sources. Abstention took its toll on the independence movement in the previous electoral cycle.
