After the elections of 14-F, the independence movement made the banner of the majority of 52%. It was the lowest common denominator that the convulsive procés still left behind after the second elections since the application of 155, while the opposition appeared disaggregated by the decline of Ciudadanos. Salvador Illa set out to lead this space and is already winning in the polls as an alternative to independence with a political manual inherited from Miquel Iceta. His rules, tread the streets, be constructive to give an image of responsible opposition, and if possible, not make mistakes.
The objective of the PSC is none other than "to make this break", they admit, referring to the pro-independence entente that supports the Government and dominates Catalonia for a decade. "And we don't have to do anything" to achieve it, they note, in light of the disagreements that arise between the partners. "We just have to wait, offer solutions and not screw up," they confess.
The PSC's plan is to take advantage of the differences between the pro-independence parties. They start from the conviction, based on demoscopy, that there are citizens, pro-independence or not, who would opt for an offer that does not prioritize the identity issue. And the forms are crucial: without the anger that Ciudadanos used, the socialists are convinced that if the independence movement is wound up, it will be a victim of its own invention.
The PSC wants to build a solid alternative to "the degradation and final collapse of a process that we all know is going nowhere." For this they use in their favor the inertia of a Government in constant fight. They take advantage of the noise generated by the partners by preaching the opposite, offering interested help. And this plan will be maintained in what is to come: a pre-election political course marked by the new budgets for 2023, the eventual replacement of Laura Borràs as president of the Parliament and dialogue between governments.
In the case of the budgets, Illa offers a "broad agreement", stripped, as she promises, of partisan interest. "I don't know if it's what suits my party, but it does for Catalonia," he assured this week on Catalunya Ràdio after warning that Aragonès has the "broken investiture majority." The PSC profits from the fact that the CUP is neither there nor is it expected and that Junts would rather settle accounts with the Socialists in order to annoy the ERC. In fact, the budgets are up to the Minister Jaume Giró, who has emerged as one of the most pragmatic voices of Junts, so "the question is whether Aragonès is willing to put the interest of Catalonia above its Government", challenges the former minister.
The pact seems like a chimera due to the refusal of ERC. The Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, has already ruled out this possibility, but in this way Illa tries to dilute the role of the commons, who have emerged as the recurring partner with whom the last accounts in Catalonia have been saved. The declared preference of the PSC for an eventual government agreement with the purple party, as in the central government or in Barcelona, goes along the same lines.
The other is the Borràs affair. The PSC does not want to feed the victimhood of the leader. Aragonès opts to replace her, and clashes with Junts, who opts, for now, to "reverse" her suspension. Illa has reached out to Esquerra in this matter and thus resolve the interim that has been installed in the Parlament. “The presidency is elected by a majority of deputies. We have to look for this majority”, encourages Aragonès.
The Socialists also delve into the differences between ERC and Junts within the framework of the dialogue table. However, this fall, the independence movement will try to guide the debate towards identity claims, swollen by the fifth anniversary of 1-O and the pending legal cases. This scenario, together with the proximity of the municipal elections, seem to distance the convening of the table of Catalan parties that Illa claims, unsuccessfully, from Aragonès since he was president.
With it, explains a PSC deputy, "it is about showing that we can look each other in the face after everything that has happened" and express that political normality returns to Catalonia. And it could be "the icing on the cake" to the Government's entailment.
