Carles Puigdemont yesterday called the first secretary and candidate of the PSC, Salvador Illa, "irresponsible" for, in his opinion, giving support to the extra-parliamentary and extreme right-wing formation Aliança Catalana, headed by the mayor of Ripoll, Sílvia Orriols. “Illa has talked a lot about an extra-parliamentary group. It makes me think a lot about whether his commitment [against the extreme right] is real,” said the former president, who criticized the socialists for agreeing with the PP in the Barcelona City Council to deprive Xavier Trias of the mayor's office of the capital. Catalan. He linked one thing and the other by highlighting that Vox is the partner of the popular parties in many administrations and spoke of “hypocrisy.”
The post-convergent leader launched a similar reproach to Esquerra before the start of the electoral campaign and yesterday he used the French experience to discredit the PSC for talking about Orriols.
Thus, he compared what is happening in this campaign with what happened in France when – he explained – François Mitterrand gave wings and focus to Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front, then an extra-parliamentary force, with the aim of weakening the Gaullist right. by Jacques Chirac. “The extreme right will win European elections in France, it leads the Perpignan City Council and the French Socialist Party, I will not say that it is almost disappeared but it is irrelevant,” stressed Puigdemont, who in his speech clearly separated immigration from multi-repeat crime and pointed out that “this is a judicial and not a police problem” that he already had to face when he was mayor of Girona.
The pro-independence leader pointed out that repeat offenders are usually few, although they cause many problems, and he related this issue to poverty, social exclusion and dropping out of school, because as he stressed, they are young people. “Let's not mix two debates that have nothing to do with each other. There are those who want to relate them. But it's a lie, they have nothing to do with it. Crime has to do with poverty, with social exclusion and with the failure of reintegration in some cases,” argued the former president, who wanted to focus on other types of crime, such as cybercrimes or drug trafficking.
Puigdemont made these references when addressing the “demographic challenge” posed by a Catalonia with a larger elderly population, low birth rates and immigration, an issue that – he warned – must be addressed with a “vision of the State” and thinking about what the “Catalonia of the future” to be able to provide public services and guarantee the welfare state.
In this regard, he promised that he will put this issue at the center of the political action of all the departments of the executive if he is president and promised guarantees to young people for the entry of the mortgage and that they can emancipate themselves as well as aid for births, among others. other measures.
In another order of things, Puigdemont assured yesterday that "it is within reach" that Junts will be the first force in the Parliament on May 12 and appealed to the undecided by warning that the result could come down to "a few votes."
