Political allies clash on day 7 of campaign

The stage is set for the December 21 Catalan election, with political parties lining up in one of two main blocs, pro-independence and unionism. Between them stands the Catalonia in Common ticket. Each bloc is praying for an absolute majority in the Parliament so they can easily defeat their political rivals and achieve their aims without too many compromises.

Each bloc is made up of three separate parties that share an overall objective and some points in their manifestos, but that ultimately want to get as many seats as possible, even at the expense of their ‘allies’. So, with the polls not showing any major transfer of votes between the blocs, it was a matter of time before tensions between the parties in each bloc began to show. Day 7 of the political campaign was one of those days.

C’s and Puigdemont share same aim, says PP leader

The People’s Party (PP) leader, Xavier García Albiol, accused the unionist Ciutadans (C's) party and Puigdemont’s pro-independence ticket of sharing the same aim of “weakening the Spanish government,” currently the Spanish branch of the PP. According to Albiol, the Ciutadans leadership is “obsessed” with attacking his party. He also asked for a public apology from the C's leaders after their claim that a vote for the PP would be tantamount to throwing one’s ballot in the bin.

C’s would support Socialists, but makes no mention of PP

Despite some discrepancies, the PP, Cs and the PSC Catalan socialists have shown a fairly united front in opposing the push for independence and in supporting the Spanish government’s decision to suspend Catalonia’s self-government. However, on Sunday Albiol had a message for the other two unionist parties, advising them to follow his party’s example in “clearly” rejecting post-electoral agreements with parties outside the unionist bloc. Ciutadans leader, Inés Arrimadas, said on Monday that it would have no problem to vote the Socialist leader for president if it is the most voted unionist party. She did not refer to the People’s Party, though.

Socialists and C’s fight for Manuel Valls’ support

The former French prime minister, Manuel Valls, who was born in Barcelona, is committed to supporting Ciutadans by taking part in a political event in a few days, despite being part of a Socialist government in France. Yet the Catalan Socialist leader, Miquel Iceta, met him on Monday. According to Iceta’s candidacy, Valls “wanted to meet Iceta in order to express his support and to know more about the electoral campaign.”

CUP casts doubt on other parties’ commitment to the Republic

Meanwhile, in the pro-independence camp, the far-left CUP party, whose votes gave the Puigdemont coalition government a majority in the Parliament before it was dissolved, is starting to doubt the commitment of the other parties in the bloc. CUP member, Jordi Salvia cast doubt on the ERC party’s willingness to seek a split with Spain no matter Madrid’s opposition. The CUP candidate wondered whether ERC’s talk of pursuing a Catalan republic was just a way of “fooling” CUP, something he said “would be the same as fooling themselves.”

The CUP member went on to say that his party would only support a JxCat/ERC coalition government if it was firmly committed to pursuing a unilateral solution to the Catalan conflict. Salva went on to remind his audience that Catalonia “has already decided to implement the Republic” and that the pro-independence parties have “committed” themselves to it.

Esquerra pushes Rajoy to dialogue

Esquerra representatives said this weekend that they were willing to go ahead with independence regardless of Madrid’s attitude in their race with CUP to win over the pro-independence left-wingers. Yet on Monday Marta Rovira, Junqueras’ number 2, told to Rajoy “not to stand up from the negotiating table” if he does not want further unilateral steps towards independence. Marta Rovira is one of the officials which will be investigated by Spain’s Guardia Civil after the Spanish Supreme Court ruled it on Monday. In the meantime, Oriol Junqueras has asked the same court to be released in order to take part in the campaign, but he has not got any response yet.

Together for Catalonia says election has no “guarantees”

A candidacy for Together for Catalonia, Laura Borràs, said that Spain will have to take out the word ‘democracy’ of its description if it does not accept the December 21 results. According to her, the election has no “guarantees” because there are some candidate in exile and some others behind bars.  

Catalonia in Common, seeking abstainers

Catalonia in Common (CeC) is in between pro-independence and unionist blocs. It attempts to get votes from either votes, but on Monday it has set another goal: winning over the ones who never vote. “We do not lie, we are honest and we do not play the Russian roulette because we know how hard it is to make ends meet,” said CeC leader Xavier Domènech.