The PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, made one of the most important announcements of his campaign during the TV3 debate on Tuesday. As the candidates debated security, Illa announced that Santa Coloma de Gramenet mayor Núria Parlon will become his interior minister and that Major Josep Lluís Trapero will become general director of the Mossos if he becomes president. The Socialist candidate had made security one of his priorities in the campaign, although he only now revealed the team that would lead the campaign.
The Catalan electorate has been embroiled in an election campaign for almost two weeks, but in all that time it has been difficult to get an idea of what agreements can be made after May 12. The debate held on Tuesday by the eight main candidates on TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio also did not clarify which alliance policy the candidates in charge will prioritize, according to the polls Salvador Illa and Carles Puigdemont, followed by Pere Aragonès. The recriminations and crossed vetoes They threaten to make it impossible to add sufficient majority for one of the presidential candidates to gain investiture.
The TV3 debate was the last of the three television debates held and leaves the race towards 12M in its final stretch, with only three days of campaigning and the day of reflection on Saturday. Since this Tuesday, the electoral law prohibits the publication of new polls in Spain, although some polls circumvent the ban by publishing from other countries. In all published population studies in recent days, the PSC is in the lead, followed by Junts, which is in second place and with ERC in third place.
The remaining parties, represented by Ignacio Garriga (Vox), Laia Estrada (CUP), Jéssica Albiach (Comuns), Carlos Carrizosa (Ciudadanos) and Alejandro Fernández (PP), have also not shown unconditional support, although some of them have done. their preferences shown. Albiach has approached all left-wing formations, while Estrada has set conditions to join a sovereign bloc. For their part, the Junts have promised that they will not agree in any way with the far-right independence movement of Aliança Catalana. “Neither active nor passive,” Rull said.
Rull and Aragonès, allies in the past, have clashed several times. In one of them, the Junts candidate invited the ERC to “rebuild unity”, because in his opinion only with the united independence movement can the thread of 1-O be resumed. Aragonès responded by recalling that it was the Junts who left the government and celebrating that Carles Puigdemont's party has continued to 'practice negotiation'. [con el PSOE] after I equated it with treason.”
Illa has also confronted Fernández, whom he has demanded to stop calling him a “liar.” But the PP candidate has reasserted himself and made Illa “swear and perjure himself that he would not support the independentists and the amnesty.” “The PP has exploited Catalonia to win votes in Spain and has waged a dirty war,” Illa accused, contrasting the way Mariano Rajoy led the process with the current one. “While the PP rules in Madrid, the law was broken here; “Now that the Socialists are in government, this has not been violated,” he added.
On the right, in a context where polls show a tie between PP and Vox, Fernández has criticized Garriga's “lie” about the regularization of migrants who is being discussed in Congress, but which the far-right candidate has wrongly taken for granted because of the PP's support. “Demagoguery and populism cannot be accepted, there are enough lies,” Fernández concluded.
In the debate held the day before at La Sexta The candidates had already shown that the policy of pacts would be one of the most important issues after May 12, because of the crossed vetoes. Moreover, as happened on TV3, in previous debates the left parties exchanged reproaches, showing the distances between their programs, indicating that an alliance between PSC, ERC and Comuns would not be easy either.
Aragonès, criticized for its drought
The climate crisis and drought have put another bloc on edge, one in which the candidates have engaged with more vehemence. CUP and Comuns have agreed to accuse Aragonès of favoring the tourism sector during the three months during which the state of emergency was declared. “There are restrictions for the countryside, but not for tourism,” Albiach protested.
For his part, Estrada has defined the government's management as “short-term” and believes that they have been “hasty” in lifting restrictions on water consumption on Tuesday, without having put a brake on tourism water consumption .
“They have no idea about water management. Me neither, but at least I recognize it,” the PP candidate has sarcastically noted, who has also attacked Illa by considering that the PSC governments, which ended in 2010, were also ineffective in preventing the lack of water .
Illa has considered Fernández's comment as “arrogant” and has regretted the “wrong steps” that, in his opinion, the Aragonès government has taken by first betting on the transfer of water by boat from Valencia and then deciding about desalination plants.
For his part, Rull has clearly positioned himself in favor of the Hard Rock project in the city of Vila-Seca (Tarragona) and has defended that the Hard Rock complex is “a project aimed at strengthening the tourism sector” and that it will be “a major conference and family tourism center” in Southern Europe.