People’s Party leader calls on unionists to focus on election

Since the December 21 election was announced, Catalan political parties have been busy preparing the ground for what will come next. Whether pro-independence parties or unionist parties, the focus has been on lining up allies for a bloc with a big enough majority to form a government, either for or against the separation of Catalonia from Spain.

Yet on Friday, Xavier García Albiol, the leader of the Catalan branch of Spain’s ruling People’s Party, criticized the other unionist parties, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and Ciutadans (Cs), for focusing on the “cockfight” over the presidency. Albiol also called on PSC and Cs to leave the debate on potential post-electoral coalitions until after the vote.

Calling the discussion of post-electoral alliances a “lack of respect”, Albiol urged the other two unionist parties to “accept the commitment that after the December 21 election, with the results on the table, they will work to form a constitutionalist government that will bring the worst stage in Catalonia’s history to an end.”