If the president of UGT in Catalonia and last on the PSC list for the Catalan elections, Matías Carnero, offends Carles Puigdemont - "He left crying in the trunk, and I don't know if he shit or pissed" - he said -, bad of CKD; If the Socialists' candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, talks about Bajo Llobregat and not Baix Llobregat, or about Lérida, and not Lleida, bad news. Any reason is good for Republicans. And if the criticism can be expressed from the city itself, so much the better. Pere Aragonès took advantage of his visit to the Lleida capital to attack the trilingualism that the socialist proposes, and to compare him with Inés Arrimadas, former president of Ciudadanos.
The Republican sees the similarity in the fact that Illa “has embraced” the Cs language program for Catalan schools. The PSC has gone from participating in the push for linguistic immersion 40 years ago to betting on trilingualism. “You propose the same as Inés Arrimadas and you speak like Inés Arrimadas,” which is why you have predicted that the first secretary of the PSC will once again be “the head of the opposition like Inés Arrimadas.”
Marta Vilalta, Esquerra's number one on the Lleida list, supported Aragonès by intervening in the campaign event with a t-shirt alluding to the controversy and on which was printed “Es diu Lleida” – “It's called Lleida.” “Catalan cannot be in the hands of Illa, who copies the Cs model,” the republican repeated.
That Aragonès uses the Catalan language as a weapon against the PSC is not strange. ERC has presented itself to the elections with the intention of creating a linguistic policy department to promote Catalan, and has made this proposal one of its campaign axes.
It is, along with its commitment to a self-determination referendum, the self-financing that it has been demanding since November and guaranteeing the welfare state for Catalan citizens.
However, Aragonès is willing to reach an agreement with any force that lends itself to all these conditions. It includes, although it may seem paradoxical, Illa. He expressed it in the morning, in a press conference organized by the ACN.
Aragonès opens up in this sense, but this does not imply that he gives up fighting against Illa. The Republican navigates between two waters, between taunting the socialist and the possibility of an agreement after the elections. The PSC is first in the polls, so any excuse is good to try to wear it down.
The scenario for an agreement with the PSC has to be, as he said, being re-elected as president of the Generalitat. “I am running for election to be the president of the Generalitat and not for ERC to be a crutch for any other political project,” he stated.
The criticism of Illa in Lleida, however, was not placid. About twenty prison officials belonging to a union that did not sign the agreement with the Government to improve security in penitentiary centers, protested and whistled during the event for more than 20 minutes against ERC.
