In the most atypical campaign due to the pandemic, almost impossible to palpate and measure due to the lack of an electoral atmosphere in the street and some rallies reduced to the minimum expression, Pedro Sánchez has turned to Salvador Illa in the second act of the five in the who will participate during the campaign for the Catalan elections.
“The time has come to vote for change, not against anyone.
Vote by mail, in a massive way, don't wait any longer.
Vote now to start changing the Catalonia we want.
Change is possible ”, asked the former Minister of Health and candidate of the PSC.
“Anyone who has reservations to vote on February 14 should now request a vote by mail.
It is very simple and it is very safe.
Voting by mail has been the lever of change in the United States and it may also be in Catalonia, ”Sánchez emphasized as a remedy for the“ misgovernment ”and“ polarization ”caused by the
you process
.
The President of the Government and the PSC candidate for the Generalitat are seeking in Tarragona, where they will return next Saturday, to attract the disgruntled electorate of Ciudadanos and other tendencies, including moderate sovereignty.
“Spain wants Catalonia, Spain needs Catalonia.
And the real Catalonia I am convinced that it feels the same ”, has influenced Sánchez.
“I am Catalan, Spanish and European.
We are not going against anyone.
We are all Catalonia.
There is no one left here and together we will put an end to this unreason.
We have to meet again to meet again with Spain ”, said Illa in a minimalist act in a ship in the port of Tarragona, attended by some thirty people, including socialist, technical and security positions.
“Unfortunately, in Catalonia we have not had a government to lead for a long time.
On the contrary, they have sought confrontation while discarding their responsibilities ”, remarked the candidate of the PSC, while Sánchez maintained that the independence movement“ decided to lose a decade ”, the time elapsed between the germ and the unilateral and unsuccessful challenge of the October 1, 2017.
Beyond the calls for harmony and the need to reduce the territorial crisis in Catalonia, Illa and Sánchez have focused on the great fishing ground of Ciudadanos voters.
Inés Arrimadas's party was the most voted in this province and in Barcelona in the 2017 elections, in which she prevailed, but according to all the polls it will suffer a significant setback on 14-F.
An incentive to capture those votes is the signing as
number two
in the provincial lists of Rubén Viñuales, who until December was the spokesman for Ciutadans in the Tarragona City Council.
Affiliated with the orange party since 2012, in the municipal elections of 2015 he was the candidate obtaining four councilors.
A result that he reissued in 2019, behind PSC and ERC, both with seven councilors.
“People know that I come from another party, and we had lost our illusion.
We thought that there was no other way of doing politics than confrontation.
And yes, it exists.
This form is that of the PSC and it is Salvador Illa ”, observed Viñuales, in charge of opening the meeting.
"We have always said that the PSOE was an open project, welcome Rubén," Sánchez received him.
"Welcome to our home," Illa added.
The PSC, which in the previous elections won two deputies to the Parliament for Tarragona, hopes to double the number of seats and even believe that they could obtain up to five representatives.
Those expectations explain the party's interest in turning, in addition to Barcelona, in this constituency.
An example: Miquel Iceta, first secretary of the PSC and newly appointed Minister of Territorial Policy, has starred, also this Saturday, in a rally in Tortosa (Tarragona).
The first vice president of the Government, Carmen Calvo, has already participated in the start of the campaign.
The continuous appeal to dialogue and the reunion of the PSC candidate contrasts with the criticism he receives from the rest of the parties.
From the so-called constitutionalists to the independence movement.
“Each party has its own version of what Illa represents.
One says that he is a representative of the established powers;
another says that Illa is a threat to the established order;
One says that Illa is a disguised separatist and the other says that Illa is an anti-Catalan agent!
Illa makes them uncomfortable because they live off the problem, the anger, the decadence ”, Sánchez has claimed.
The Socialists are sure that they will obtain a good result, but given the expectations generated, they have been appealing to prudence for several days. PSC veterans remember that only the Catalans have won in 1999 and 2003, both with Pasqual Maragall as the candidate and by just 5,000 votes over CiU. The latest poll by the Center for Opinion Studies, the Catalan CIS, predicts a victory for ERC with very little margin over Junts. The PSC, according to this poll, would be third and would not win the elections, as the CIS predicted last week. The uncertainty due to the lack of an electoral environment would translate, all parties agree, into a drop in participation of between 10 and 20 points on 14-F. A scenario in which many seats could dance for a few hundred votes.