Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen plays in the Amphitheater and Gardens of the La Torreta Cultural Center in Montmeló. “Everyone needs a place to rest; everyone wants to have a home; It doesn't matter what anyone says; “Nobody likes to be alone,” says the song and that is when Salvador Illa and Pedro Sánchez embrace in a hug on stage.
167 kilometers away, former president Carles Puigdemont closes the central Junts campaign event, in Argelers, after singing Els Segadors with No Surrender, also by Springsteen. A song that talks about resistance and reaffirmation. Quite a declaration of intentions for Puigdemont ahead of the elections on May 12.
Lyrics with a message that demonstrate a certain musical harmony between PSC and JxCat, but little else seems to unite them a week before the elections are held and all forces are calling for the mobilization of their electorate so as not to leave any vote behind. This week is decisive for what may happen next Sunday and in the first five days the electoral race was monopolized by the outcome of the President of the Government's decision.
These elections are about Catalonia, but also about Spanish politics. And after the Basque elections in which Sánchez managed to save the furniture, he needs a good result from the PSC. The President of the Government links his future to the victory of Illa and Catalonia is once again – paraphrasing the Springsteen song – his “home” and this was demonstrated in his first public appearance after announcing his continuity at the Feria de Barcelona April. He needs a victory to be able to face the 9-J European electoral race with some optimism, despite the consequences that it may later have on the governability of the legislature.
Hence, yesterday, Sánchez wanted to nip in the bud any statement that supports the elections for the presidency of the Generalitat ending up being decided in Madrid. For the President of the Government, one thing is the pacts and the need to reach an agreement with the Catalan independence parties in Congress and another is the Catalan elections.
The day before Illa had already stated this emphatically in the Tribuna Barcelona forum by pointing out that “the president of the Generalitat is elected by the Parliament” ruling out any maneuver in the Moncloa. But Sánchez wanted to show yesterday that neither ERC nor Junts will decide the future of the legislature and if Illa wins the elections, the independence parties will emerge weakened from the polls.
For this reason, he posed a dilemma: the “blockade, paralysis, uncertainty and instability” or a “broad victory” for the PSC so that there is “more stability for Catalonia to advance in rights and coexistence.”
Sánchez charged against the PP and once again spoke of “concord” among Catalans and endorsed the phrase that the PSC leader repeats these days about the process and “the 10 lost years of Catalonia”, a statement that Illa insists on. all his public interventions.
The dependence of the PSC candidate on Sánchez and the possibility that the President of the Government would drop him to remain in the Executive was another of the statements that Alberto Núñez Feijóo put forward in the interview given to La Vanguardia that is published today. In it he points out that “Illa cannot be president of the Generalitat if Sánchez does not authorize it. He is there for whatever he asks of him.”
An argument that goes along the same lines as that of the pro-independence parties in their criticism of the socialists. President Pere Aragonès, at the central ERC meeting in Pineda de Mar, brought out the PSC's offices. From his hometown, he shot at his main competitors. Regarding Junts he warned that voting for this formation means that “the cuts will return”, and regarding the PSC he warned that “if you vote for those from Moncloa, they will rule from Moncloa.” Regarding the possibility that ERC loses the elections and stops governing the Generalitat, he warned that “10 years of decline will come.”
The central meeting of Junts at the Jean Carrère pavilion in Argelers was another of the nerve centers of the events that took place yesterday. Puigdemont, who gathered around 3,000 people, according to figures provided by Junts, accused the central government of "treating Catalans as second-class citizens" and "always giving more to Madrid." “The interests of Moncloa will never go above the Catalans,” continued the leader of Junts.
For the former president, the PSC has interests outside of Catalonia and he pointed out that the socialists are “afraid” of the mobilization that his party is leading. For this reason, he celebrated that the independence movement is once again activated with the conviction that it will win the elections.
In his speech, and with the aim of not leaving any votes behind, the Junts candidate addressed all those pro-independence supporters who are not sure about whether to vote on 12-M: “It is better to go to vote with doubts than not to have the doubt of what Catalonia we will have if Illa governs.”
The candidate of the commons, Jéssica Abiach, also had words of criticism directed at Illa, whom she said “is more like a cement factory businessman than a social democratic leader” and once again asked him for clarifications about the possibility of an agreement. transversal” with Junts, as stated in previous days.
The Vox candidate, Ignacio Garriga, went to Salt, a territory in which the emergence of Aliança Catalana and its xenophobic discourse could weaken his aspirations. From there the party leader Santiago Abascal responded to Feijóo about not dividing the right-wing vote and ordered him to “withdraw” the PP candidacies for Lleida and Girona.
In this last week until May 12, the parties will mobilize to hunt down the undecided. According to the CIS pre-election survey, 36.2% will decide their vote during these last days, 14.2% of them during the day of reflection and on election day itself.
Seven days left.
