TIC Tac Toe. Spain, Catalonia and Barcelona, under socialist mandate. Pedro Sánchez, Salvador Illa and Jaume Collboni.
It is the alignment that the Prime Minister is looking for, as a reward for the commitment to reunification in Catalonia, which, this legislature, led him to adopt the most politically risky decisions of the mandate. In June 2021, the Government approved pardons for the leaders of the process. And, in December 2022, the Senate sealed the sedition repeal and embezzlement reform.
The right in unison, but also sectors of the PSOE, exclaimed. And they still have them. "That Spain is broken? Well, today the Constitution is being complied with in each and every one of Spain's territories", replies Sánchez. Not by chance, he closed his campaign in Barcelona yesterday.
Together with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, very active throughout the campaign. Felipe González, always mentioned at PSOE rallies, on the other hand, shone through his absence. Zapatero was the last to do three in a row, with Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla, with Joan Clos and Jordi Hereu. And Zapatero was also the one who, before this campaign started - at the opening of the municipal conference held in Valencia in April - called the entire PSOE to defend Sánchez's "bravery" in Catalonia, pardons included.
Some regional presidents of the PSOE, such as Emiliano García-Page and Javier Lambán, continue without it. But Sánchez also shared the stage with them, in Puertollano and Zaragoza, as well as with the rest of the presidents and socialist territorial leaders. "Everyone has already realized that Pedro contributes and adds to all the territories", Ferraz emphasized.
Up to 45,000 supporters, according to his calculator, attended the rallies that Sánchez led from May 1 until the end of the campaign at the Vall d'Hebrón pavilion. More than 150,000 people at all the events of the PSOE throughout Spain. "We are very happy with the mobilization and the atmosphere of the meetings", they emphasize.
"And we did the campaign we wanted", they insist. A “positive and purposeful” campaign, according to Sánchez, full of announcements that then became agreements of the Council of Ministers in matters of public housing, health and education. With young people, women, pensioners and workers in the electoral target.
Sánchez always tried to take the initiative and impose his agenda with these announcements immediately transferred to the BOE. But the controversy over the Bildu lists and the scandals over alleged electoral fraud in recent days altered the campaign guide.
The electoral objective on Sunday is to retain the nine autonomous regions governed by the PSOE, singularly the Valencian Community, but also Aragon and Navarra, and Extremadura, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, Asturias and La Rioja.
Also Seville, the main socialist square, and the reconquest of Barcelona and Valencia, but also Zaragoza, Malaga, Vitoria, Pamplona... Now, Sánchez just has to cross his fingers.
