The triumph of the Catalan socialists is gold in cloth for a Sánchez who has been in second position and who clings to a complex sum scenario to be able to continue as president
The victory of the PSC in Catalonia it was sungbut what no poll had foreseen is that with his “everything on red” to stop a PP and Vox government, Meritxell Batet’s candidacy would sweep 19 deputies, 7 more than in 2019 and a result with which Salvador Illa’s party strengthens its supremacy in Catalonia while he independence click again at the polls. The triumph of the Catalan socialists is gold in cloth for a Pedro Sánchez who has been in second position and who, at the expense of the final scrutiny, clings to a complex sum scenario to be able to continue as president before a right that has fallen short of expectations.
Since 2008, the Catalan socialists have not prevailed in a general, a conquest that completes a triplet after winning the 2021 Catalans and the last municipal ones and that confirms the PSC as the main party in Catalonia, which grows while the independence movement accuses demobilization and division. The strategy of batet of capitalizing on the Catalan fear of a right-wing government has been effective so that it has given a coup of authority and left its main competitors far behind. Because behind him there is a triple tie to seven deputies between Sumar, ERC and Junts, while the differential with respect to the PP -6 seats- is 13 deputies.
With his dichotomous appeal to the Catalans, “or Sánchez or Feijóo“, and the warning that Catalonia could not “pay the price” of seeing the popular ones reconquer Moncloa, the PSC has taken advantage of one of the most polarized elections in recent years. In addition to fueling fear of the right-wing government, it has squeezed two more threads of argument: the work of the coalition between the PSOE and Sumar in economic and social matters and the deactivation of the process with Sánchez’s commitment to dialogue. Beyond having hit the recipe to seduce the voter, the abstention in the traditionally independent territories has also rowed in their favor.
The head of the opposition in Catalonia has the presidency of the Generalitat between his eyebrows and is eager to strike a blow on the Catalan chessboard, despite the fact that Pere Aragonès still has two years in office ahead of him and it is not part of his plans to press the electoral button prematurely. It is clear that for Illa it will not be the same to approach that goal without the Moncloa watchtower. But regardless of that, the current head of the opposition sees his strategy validated to place itself in the center and gradually gain institutional power at the cost of wedged into the cracks between ERC and Junts.