The PSC candidate for the Parliamentary elections, Salvador Illa, avoided clarifying tonight whether he will agree with Junts after this Sunday's elections, while the president of the Generalitat and head of the ERC list, Pere Aragonès, and the number three of Together+ for Barcelona, Josep Rull, blamed each other for the lack of pro-independence unity. “Let the Catalans speak, and then we will talk among all of us,” said Illa in the candidate debate organized by laSexta and presented by Ana Pastor when asked if she ruled out agreeing with Junts +.
The socialist pointed out that in this legislature there has been a pro-independence majority “that has not worked,” he showed his intention to take a step forward to appear in the investiture debate and urged the pro-independence supporters to specify whether they will block or allow a new one to be opened. stage.
Aragonès also did not specify whether he will support Illa if the socialists need Esquerra's votes to be president, arguing that the issue should focus on the need to agree on a referendum with the State, address unique financing and strengthen the welfare state and the Catalan language. .
The debate focused on whether Salvador Illa will achieve the Generalitat, the financing model and how each of the eight candidates believes that structural problems such as the deterioration suffered by the community's public services and the severe drought must be addressed.
Around a table were the six candidates from the PSC, ERC, PP, Comunes-Sumar, Ciudadanos and Vox, as well as two representatives from Junts and the CUP. Former councilor Josep Rull, given the inability of the candidate Carles Puigdemont to attend the appointment as a fugitive from Justice within the framework of the “procés”, and the one he accompanies as number two of the candidacy of the Catalan anti-capitalists headed by Laia Estrada, Laure Vega.
The PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, presented himself as the president who will “unite and serve” the Catalans in a “new stage” without a pro-independence majority in the Parliament, which he accused of “blocking” during the last ten years and of having “collapsed.” The red line in the post-electoral pacts is for the socialist Vox and Aliança Catalana, while he insisted that he will reach out “for the good of Catalonia”, although he appealed to the direct vote because the best scenario is to have the “least dependencies” on the rest . He reiterated, in this sense, that the Government “will decide in Catalonia.”
The former minister assured that the public policies in health, education and housing of the last four presidents “have not worked” and promised for his funds to “get the best possible financing” in the next four years of the legislature. Also undertake a debureaucratization of the daily work of teachers, more places for professional training, advance in free education from 0 to 3 years, and dedicate 7% of the budgets to Health so that the waiting time in primary care becomes of 48 hours. He reiterated that the Government “will decide in Catalonia.”
The number three of Junts in Puigdemont's candidacy, Josep Rull, set the objective on the independence of Catalonia, but, he clarified, the conditions are not the same as on October 1, 2017. He thus called for “learning from what “It has happened” and “rebuilding unity” with the rest of the pro-independence forces to be able to govern. The former Minister of Territory presented these regional elections as the dilemma between “socialism or Puigdemont” in which it will be decided whether Catalonia has a “subsidiary or leadership” position in relation to the Government of Pedro Sánchez. He considered it “intolerable” that it is decided who will be president in Madrid, amid criticism of PSC, PP and Comunes for, according to Rull, having done so with the mayor of Barcelona.
The ERC candidate for reelection as president, Pere Aragonès, began by asking for “care” with the polls and made a point of stating that during his government amnesty and pardons were achieved for the leaders of the “procés.” He also pointed out the holding of a self-determination referendum, the reinforcement of Catalan, achieving tax management and deepening public services as the main agendas of his proposal for these elections. In reaction to the words of the Junts leader, the Republican was “surprised” by the call for the union of the secessionist bloc, “when there has not been one” in the last four years.
Taking pride in his management, he claimed that 9,000 more teaching positions have been created and the cuts in social benefits have ended. He criticized that the rest of the forces did not support his Budget project that caused the electoral anticipation because, he defended, “without them there is no social proposal.”
The PP candidate for the Generalitat of Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, pointed out Illa for having sworn that “he would never support the independence movement” and in the regional Chamber “he has supported all the initiatives” of ERC. Faced with this, he placed his vote as the only one that will serve to “end the process and lead the opposition to separatism.” The popular recommended Illa “humility”, accused him that at the level of government agreements “he will do what the President of the Government orders” and questioned him: “Will you have the courage to face Pedro Sánchez?”
For her part, the Comunes-Sumar candidate for the Catalan presidency, Jéssica Albiach, stated that they would only support a “progressive” Government in which Junts is not present, whom she judged to be the “heirs” of CiU, “the champions in cuts.” » of public services. The leader of Colau in the Parliament set as priorities access to housing, investment in education and health, and measures for the ecological transition. Her speech was, in addition, marked at all times by the rejection of the construction of the Hard Rock canteen and the expansion of the airport, as examples of what Junts and PSC are betting on instead of creating desalination plants to alleviate the problems with lack of water. She also attacked the Republicans for their responsibility in the state of education, after “six years at the helm”, and where she pointed out as shortcomings “the lack of vocational training places and the air conditioning of the classrooms.”
The Vox candidate, Ignacio Garriga, positioned Illa as “just another separatist” for not having support from 25% of Castilians in education and appealed to citizens to “not be fooled” by who supported the pardons, the PSC. Next, he called for trusting them as an alternative to achieve “fewer taxes” and more “security and prosperity.” The leader of Abascal's team pointed to the transfer of the Ebro and changing the pipeline system to alleviate the serious drought in the Catalan region.
The leader of the CUP, Laure Vega, championed education and health policies as those “necessary for the future health and education” so that there is no “republic without citizens.” She marked the right to housing as central and rejected a unilateral declaration of independence because, she alluded, “the people have to decide.” She accused the Catalan socialists of being the “most right-wing affiliate” of the PSOE and Junts of being on the side of measures that perpetuate “precarious jobs and tourism that empties streets without limitation.”