Everyone claims to be the solution: campaign day 13

With only four days until the December 21 elections, today served as the last weekend that parties could use for their campaign. While many took advantage of this to celebrate their main event, some groups also looked outwards, to respond to controversial statements made in the last few days. 

Cs offers a “president of reason”

Before an audience of 4,000, Ciutadans (Cs) and its candidate for Catalonia, Inés Arrimadas, claimed to offer the “president of reason” This, Arrimadas said, compared to Puigdemont, who was “the president of the independence roadmap.” “We’re hungry for change,” she stated, also alluding to a willingness to end the pro-independence push. The “switch,” the unionist candidate explained to the crowd, is a vote for Cs. Arrimadas also repeatedly called for maximum participation because, in the face of a set result, a victory may depend “on a handful of votes,” she warned.

Article 155 has meant “calm, security and serenity,” says PP

The candidate for the People’s Party (PP) in Catalonia, Xavier García Albiol, asked for his voters’ support. Hoping to discourage anyone from voting for other unionist party Cs, he reminded his audience that it was Mariano Rajoy’s government and consequently the PP to have “applied Article 155” and “sent Puigdemont 1,000 km” away after dismissing him. He also deemed both the deposed Catalan president and the organizers of the pro-independence organization the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) as “fanatics,” and assured that the application of Article 155 “has meant the moment with the most calm, security and serenity that Catalonia has seen in recent years.” This, according to García Albiol, is because Article 155 has allowed there to “open a period of hope” of “reverting a situation that is generating a great deal of pain in society.” “Article 155 has allowed that, today, us Catalans continue (also) being Spanish,” he stated.

PSC defends “traditional catalanism”

The head of the Catalan Socialists (PSC), Miquel Iceta, said that the December 21 election will serve to recover “traditional catalanism” and claimed to be the only alternative to pro-independence forces. He did so during the central campaign act before some 5,000 people, alongside former Spanish president José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero and the secretary general of the PSOE Pedro Sánchez. “We must reclaim traditional catalanism,” said to Iceta, “the catalanism of the basic teachings that ‘united we win, divided we lose,’ the one of work well done has no borders, the one which sought to raise up Catalonia, honor parents and grandparents, based on the work, values, negotiation, pact, advances, pro-European forces and legitimate will to influence Spanish policy,” he concluded.

Catalonia in Common deems PP, Cs and PSC as “disgraceful”

The head of the coalition Catalonia in Common, Xavier Domènech, referred to his political opponents Ciutadans (Cs), the People’s Party (PP) and the Catalan Socialists (PSC) as the “disgraceful bloc.” He justified this by criticizing the recent statements by Spanish vice president (of the PP), Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who said that pro-independence forces were “made headless” and that of former socialist minister Josep Borrell, in a PSC meeting with the party’s head Miquel Iceta, who said Catalonia was “diseased” and was to be “disinfected.” “Miquel, what do you want to disinfect?” asked Domènech. “Do you want to disinfect part of the country? Make them headless? How you can you say you’ll heal and be transversal? You’re thinking of disinfecting and making headless. Shame,” he said.

ERC notes lack of “separation of powers” in Spain

Number four on the candidacy for the Esquerra Republicana ticket, Parliament president Carme Forcadell, also used the party’s campaign event to respond to the Spanish vice president’s insinuations of the state government’s role in the “heedlessness” of pro-independence forces. “We already knew that Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart were political prisoners,” Forcadell stated, “but yesterday, Soraya confirmed it for us.” Forcadell continued by proclaiming that through her statements, Sáenz de Santamaría “confirmed that there is no separation of powers in this country, that it’s the Spanish government that dictates what the courts do. Thank you, Soraya, for confirming what we already knew,” she proclaimed in irony. 

JxCat files lawsuit against Spanish vice president

While many parties have responded to Sáenz de Santamaría’s speech, the pro-independence Together for Catalonia candidacy went further, announcing at their campaign event that they would be filing a lawsuit against her for perverting the course of justice. The lawsuit was announced by the spokesperson for Together for Catalonia, Eduard Pujol. “This can’t be done, one can’t just put people in prison, skipping the rule of law, what do they think?” asked Pujol, referring to the Spanish government’s possible involvement in the incarceration of pro-independence leaders. Meanwhile, the number four on the Together for Catalonia candidacy for Barcelona, deposed minister Jordi Turull, noted that “the great defeat for the Article 155 trifecta,” (referring to the parties that voted for the motion, that is Cs, PP, and PSC), would be that, on December 21, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría proclaim: “People of Spain, Puigdemont has won.”

CUP says an agreed referendum is “mirage” 

The candidate for far-left leader of the CUP, Carles Riera, warned the rest of the pro-independence parties and the Catalonia in Common coalition that the possibility of celebrating an agreed referendum in Catalonia is a “mirage,” and called on voters to apply unilaterality from the streets. “The Republic is won and is imposed from the streets,” he said, “with a face to face battle with the Spanish state.” Riera continued by explaining once more the political proposal of the ‘Decrees for Dignity,’ which include the creation of a public bank of Catalonia. The new country, he stated, will serve to “say goodbye” to banks like laCaixa and Banc Sabadell. “If they want to leave,” he added, referring to them moving their headquarters out of Catalonia following the implementation of Article 155 by the Spanish government, “we don’t need them.”