Catalonia has confirmed itself as one of the great granaries of socialist votes. The PSC was the party with the most votes last night, thus revalidating the victory of 2007 in municipal elections and the Catalan elections of 2021. In addition, those of Salvador Illa maintain hegemony in their great fiefdom, the metropolitan red belt, and have prevailed in three of the four provincial capitals: Tarragona, Lleida and Girona. Only the second position of Jaume Collboni in Barcelona left a very bitter taste in the Socialist victory.
Barcelona was the great bet of the Socialists, including the President of the Government, and the leaders of the PSC were slow to appear from the headquarters on Carrer Pallars in Barcelona due to the slight difference – less than 100 votes – that separated Collboni from Colau until the Last moment. After midnight Illa summed up the victory: “We are the first game in Tarragona, in Lleida, and in Girona. The PSC is the first in the metropolitan area and the first in the four provincial councils of Catalonia” and presented Collboni as “the leader of the first left-wing force in Barcelona”.
The candidate took the floor to leave the door open to be the next mayor with ERC and the commons of Colau: “Barcelona has voted progressive. We are obliged to open a new stage of progress and the PSC does not give up anything, ”he warned.
Despite the disappointment in Barcelona, the PSC had plenty of reasons to celebrate last night. The victory in votes against ERC and Junts makes him face with very good prospects the aspirations of the opposition leader in Catalonia, to seize the Generalitat from ERC. The Government in minority of Pere Aragonès will feel the breath on the neck of the socialists in the other half of the legislature that it has left.
The Socialists aspired to take over the four provincial capitals, and they have been one step away from achieving it. Rubén Viñuales, former candidate for Ciudadanos in 2019, returned victory to the PSC in Tarragona and has it in his power to govern because the current mayor, Pau Ricomà (ERC), will not be able to bring together an alternative majority if it is not with anti-nature pacts.
The same is happening in Lleida, where Félix Larrosa prevailed without the possibility that his rival, the Republican Miquel Pueyo, could join Junts and El Comú de Lleida to form an alternative government; instead, the socialist could be the next mayor with a pact with the PP.
In the case of Girona, the candidate Sílvia Paneque was the big surprise, although not among her teammates who in recent weeks claimed that she had a serious chance of beating Junts. Paneque won in votes in a city that was always socialist until the irruption in 2011 of the then CiU led by Carles Puigdemont, but she was tied in seats with Guanyem Girona de Lluc Salellas, so if she wants to govern she will need Junts .
The Socialists maintain their control in the so-called red belt, with absolute majorities in municipalities such as Cornellà, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Boi de Llobregat or Sant Joan Despí. But last night they also observed with concern the fact that they had lost the ones they had in municipalities as important as L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Viladecans or Gavà, as a result of the irruption of Vox, or the overturn in Sant Andreu de la Barca, but which contrast with the majorities conquered in Sabadell or Granollers.
