An election on the horizon is a good reason for the variety of institutional and political representatives at the Feria de Abril de Catalunya to skyrocket. And this year will not be the exception. Yesterday the grounds of the Forum Park became the scene of a parade of authorities such as the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès; the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet; the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños; the advisor to the Presidency of the Board of Andalusia, Antonio Sanz; the delegate of the Spanish 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 in the Executive, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of the PP, and in the Government, Salvador Illa, first secretary of the PSC, who also showed up, at nine o'clock of the night, and during the evening.
The 50th edition of the party, which will last until next May 1, has booths from the PSC, ERC, Ciutadans and Vox. Esquerra has been there for years, with its Bodega Republicana, where Oriol Junqueras was yesterday, while PDECat, when it was under the JxCat brand, participated until the pandemic began. Nevertheless, the mayor of Barcelona de Junts, Xavier Trias, did appear in person in the afternoon, in a gesture that distinguished himself, once again, from his party.
One of the most searched images was that of Aragonès and Bolaños together. The two greeted each other, shared the platform and exchanged some comments, without delving into current issues. Everything they could have said to each other was said by the minister in the morning in an interview with RTVE: Bolaños once again completely rejected the clarity agreement proposed by the president to establish the basis of a hypothetical referendum and qualified the idea of "electoralist" and "unilateral", as it currently has minimal political support.
Junqueras put the reply on behalf 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 such an occasion the image is worth more than the word, so the walk of the different political entourages through the booths took place without major declarations, beyond the clichés referring to the ties between Andalusia and Catalonia. However, the eyes were on the possible coincidence of Bolaños with Aragonès, or one of them with Feijóo, to know how they would act and what they would say to each other.
The disembarkation of authorities will become more evident tomorrow, on St George's Day. Six ministers, three from the PSOE and three from Unides Podemos, will tour the decorated streets of Barcelona this weekend. In addition to Bolaños, there will also be the holders of Culture, Miquel Iceta, and Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, while for the purple part of the Central Government there will be the second vice-president, Yolanda Díaz; the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats.
