Party Review – PPC: “Some messages in Catalonia incite hatred”

Barcelona (CNA).- Current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, is again the candidate for the Spanish Elections in Barcelona province for PPC, the Catalan branch of the conservative People’s Party (PP). Although PP has been the ruling party in Spain since 2011 and won the past Spanish Elections in December 2015, obtaining 123 MPs in the 350-seat Spanish Parliament, the party led by current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, lost 63 MPs. Fernández Díaz assured that “some messages in Catalonia incite hatred” especially against PP, who is usually “demonised”. Regarding Catalonia’s push for independence, PPC’s candidate for Barcelona considered it “political fiction” to plan a “unilateral referendum on independence” in Catalonia and accused those who defend this option of being “a problem for coexistence” in Catalonia. Fernández Díaz also aims to attract “those who used to vote for PP and voted for Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ in the last elections” in order to “stop” a potential coalition between Spanish Socialists (PSOE) and alternative left coalition ‘Unidos Podemos’. 

As a result of the public booing that former PPC's leader, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, received last weekend in the city of Vic, Fernández Díaz accused some parties in Catalonia of “inciting hatred against PP”, which is currently a “demonised party”, he said. Thus, last weekend’s reaction to Sánchez-Camacho proves that “PP’s candidates and headquarters suffer from aggressions which are consequences of inciting hatred”, which he outlined “is typified as a crime in the penal system”.

Fernández Díaz also lamented that Francesc Homs, liberal Convergència (CDC) candidate for the Spanish Elections, didn’t condemn the booing and considered his position not only “very grave” but also “repugnant”. Homs suggested that Sánchez-Camacho provoked the booing by going to Vic. “We should ask Homs to make us a map of Catalonia with the routes free of hatred”, stated Fernández Díaz

A unilateral referendum on independence is “political fiction”

After the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), the grassroots organisation responsible for the main pro-independence demonstrations in Catalonia, suggested that the possibility of holding a unilateral referendum on independence should be discussed, Fernández Díaz said that he considered it “political fiction”. “Enough of political fiction”, he stated during a meeting in Castelldefels, a city close to Barcelona. “The world and Spain have already enough problems without politicians inventing new ones” he added.

He also accused “those political leaders and organisations” which defend this option of being “a problem for coexistence and for the future that we all want for Catalonia” which foresees its permanence “within Spain”.

Avoid the “Spanish CUP”

Focusing on the lack of agreement amongst the main Spanish parties after the elections, which led to the calling of new elections, PPC urges voters to avoid experiments and trust “those who were most responsible for taking this country out of the crisis”. Fernández Díaz also aims to attract “those who used to vote for PP and voted for Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ in the last elections” in order to “stop” a potential coalition between Spanish Socialists (PSOE) and alternative left coalition ‘Unidos Podemos’.According to him, such an agreement would be similar to that reached between pro-independence forces in Catalonia, cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP. Indeed, he described a potential agreement between PSOE and ‘Unidos Podemos’ as the “Spanish CUP”, suggesting that it would be radical and lead to instability.