Elections on the horizon are a good reason for the variety of institutional and political representatives at the Feria de Abril de Catalunya to skyrocket. And this year will be no exception. This Friday, the grounds of the Parc del Fòrum became the scene of a parade of authorities such as the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès; the president of Congress, Meritxell Batet; the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños; the counselor of the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía, Antonio Sanz; the delegate of the Government in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto; and the mayors of Barcelona, Ada Colau; Sant Adrià de Besòs, Filo Cañete, and Badalona, Rubén Guijarro.
To all of them we must add the heads of the opposition to the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of the PP, and to the Government, Salvador Illa, first secretary of the PSC, who were also seen in the lighting, at nine at night , and during the evening.
The 50th edition of the festival, which will last until May 1, has booths from the PSC, ERC, Ciudadanos and Vox. Esquerra, for years, has been present, with its Bodega Republicana, in which Oriol Junqueras was present this Friday, while the PDECat, when it was under the JxCat brand, participated until the pandemic began. However, the mayor of Barcelona for Junts, Xavier Trias, did appear in the afternoon, in a gesture with which he distanced himself, once again, from his party.
One of the most sought after images was that of Aragonès and Bolaños together. Both greeted each other, shared a platform and exchanged some comments, without delving into current issues. Everything that could have been said was announced by the minister in the morning in an interview on RTVE: Bolaños once again flatly rejected the clarity agreement proposed by the president to lay the foundations for a hypothetical referendum and described the idea as "electoralist" and “unilateral”, while today it has minimal political support.
Junqueras put the reply on the part of the Republicans: "We are used to the PSOE making provocative statements, but (...) we are convinced that there will be an agreement that allows citizens to vote."
In any case, on an occasion like this, images are worth more than words, so that the walk of the different political delegations through the booths took place without any big statements, beyond the clichés referring to the ties between Andalusia and Catalonia. All in all, all eyes were on the possible coincidence of Bolaños with Aragonès, or of one of them with Feijóo, to find out how they would act and what they would say to each other.
The landing of authorities will become more evident this Sunday, on the festival of Sant Jordi. Six ministers, three from the PSOE and three from Unidas Podemos, will tour the decorated streets of Barcelona this weekend. In addition to Bolaños, there will be the heads of Culture, Miquel Iceta, and Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, while the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, will be representing the purple part of the Government; the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, and the Minister for Universities, Joan Subirats.
