Ballot by ballot, vote by vote. The PP lived the hours following the municipal elections of 2019 as an ordeal to be about to be left out of the Barcelona City Council by obtaining 5.01% of votes (the limit to enter is 5%). The polls awarded the record to the head of the list Josep Bou and the second councilor, Óscar Ramírez, for only 40. The official count in the Ciutat de la Justicia, in Barcelona, increased the cushion to 62. That agonizing trickle of votes was a metaphor for the catastrophic results of the PP that now, taking advantage of the pull of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, hopes to leave behind to establish itself again in the axis of the non-independence right and attract the votes of Ciudadanos and Vox.
After a decade in which it has been shaken by the procés, the PP hit bottom in Catalonia in those 2019 elections. Not only did it touch the disaster in Barcelona: it disappeared in the vast majority of municipalities of the metropolitan area and in the provincial capitals it was reduced to the minimum. It was the same dynamic of the regional elections of 2017 and 2021 where he was left without his own group. With 3.1% of the votes, the PP only achieved 67 councilors – ERC, the winner, 3107 – and was seventh force. In 2011, in its best times, just before the procés, it was third, with 473.
Aware that part of the future general election contest will be held in Catalonia, Feijóo has lavished himself in this autonomous community – he has been four times in April – and has modulated his discourse to approach centrality. He does not speak of "linguistic apartheid" and has claimed, for example, the disappeared José Piqué, as the party's patrimony – the former minister confronted José María Aznar several times. Feijóo has referred to "the historical nationality of Catalonia" challenging the most conservative sector of the PP by claiming that it was in this community where the Constitution was voted overwhelmingly over other parts of Spain.
The balance in 2019 was so "terrifying", in the words of one leader, that the PP hopes to reverse the trend. His priority is Barcelona where he aspires to grow hand in hand with Dani Sirera, a historic, rescued by Feijóo, who brings together all the possible ex: former president of the party, former deputy and former councilor. A friendly and house voice to return the party to its origins. After the signing of Bou, there will be no more experiments: Sirera has opted for the political scientist and former deputy Juan Milian and the former councilor Àngels Esteller. Without hesitation, he has made it clear that he will not do like Manuel Valls, the former French prime minister and ephemeral mayor in Barcelona, and that he will not make Ada Colau mayor. Before, he has warned, he will vote for the mayor of the PSC or Junts.
Xavier García Albiol greets the audience after being appointed mayor of Badalona Rubén Guijarro. MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI
Barcelona is the priority but the PP aspires to resurface on the metropolitan map. Its main asset is the same since 2011: Xavier García Albiol. In 2020, he was removed from the position of mayor through a motion of censure promoted by the PSC for appearing in the Pandora Papers. He said goodbye to the office predicting that he would win in 2023 and he was probably right. The polls and his rivals give him as the winner. Another thing is whether he will exceed the threshold of 14 councilors of the absolute majority so as not to be displaced by the left. Albiol presumes that voters of all colors vote for him and many of them pro-independence – he did not collect signatures against the pardons – as was verified with the double ballot box of the municipal and European elections of 2019. Now it seeks to squeeze that road in the historic center to catch the 14 councilors.
In addition to the left front, Albiol's main threat is the trial for prevarication for authorizing telephone antennas. Disqualification is at stake. The party clothes him without discussion: Feijóo appointed him coordinator of candidates and breached its statutes by not suspending him from membership for the trial. The point is that the paradigm of Badalona has not changed nor that of Castelldefels. They are two traced cases: Mayor Manu Reyes won in 2011, 2015 and 2019 but only reached office in the first term because the left dismantled him. Something that does not happen in Pontons, the small municipality of 1000 inhabitants of the Penedès (Barcelona) where the PP has won six consecutive times. All three are their best asset and the PP gives all of them carte blanche to use whether or not they want the brand.
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