Catalonia has been a real balm at the worst moment for Pedro Sánchez. After the five days of reflection, which were experienced in the PSOE as a true leap into the abyss, the president focused on the Catalan campaign receiving support in the streets very different from the tension perceived in Madrid, and achieving a result, even better than expected, with the PSC in 42 seats and the independence movement far from an absolute majority. This has reactivated the president’s discourse, who reappeared on Thursday at the European Funds forum organized by elDiario.es, with a speech in which he defends his policy in Catalonia. Sánchez sees the PP completely out of the game with the Catalan result, which he believes endorses his policy and, above all, leaves the opposition disarmed at an important moment when the government is trying to prepare everything to start strong after the European elections, assuming both Junts and ERC decide to continue supporting the Executive.
Sánchez has completely declared the end of the procees, unlike Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, and has mocked the internal contradictions of this party on this issue. “The Catalans have voted to open a new time, beneficial for all of Spain. The victory of the Socialists in votes and seats closes a decade of division in Catalan society and will open a new time of understanding,” he said. The president insists, as he told the PSOE Executive on Monday, that this result confirms his policy on Catalonia. “And let me say, because we have done it alone, but we were right those who said that overcoming past conflicts is done by betting on forgiveness and generosity and those who thought that the unity of Spain is not built by facing one territory against another, but by building a common project. And we are right those who believe that problems are solved by facing them head on, without avoiding them or exacerbating them, as the previous PP administration did.” The message is very clear: the procees reached its maximum expression with Mariano Rajoy in La Moncloa, and has reached its minimum, with the independence movement at its lowest ever, with Sánchez in power.
The president is convinced that his major headache, Catalonia, is going to become his major success, and he seems willing to use it to his advantage not only in the European campaign but throughout the remainder of his term, which from his way of speaking in this speech suggests that he believes will be long, which is what almost everyone in the Executive is now saying after the Catalan elections. The crisis in ERC worries the government, and the possibility that the republicans will veer away from the Executive, but they believe that they must give them time to reflect and trust that they will understand that the best thing for everyone is for them to continue negotiating and supporting the government in exchange for political concessions.
Sánchez’s speech also shows that he has regained an electoral tone very different from that which he had after the shock of his five days of reflection, in which he said he seriously considered resigning. The president harshly criticized the PP for its doubts about the procees and its closeness in some positions to Vox. “The right, surrendered to the far-right, continues to deny the political plurality and territorial diversity of our country. The PP in Catalonia says that the procees has died and in Madrid that it is more alive than ever. In Catalonia they do not talk about pardons and amnesty during the campaign and in Madrid they call for demonstrations. The only thing they keep the same in Catalonia and Madrid is to echo the message of the far-right of Abascal. What breaks societies is the surrender of traditional right to the far-right,” he concluded. Now clearly focused on the European elections, Sánchez has also taken the opportunity to demand the “Spanish success model”, with economic data better than that of other economies in the region, and to remember that all this has been done with a progressive commitment to social policy, to raise pensions, a labor reform that has brought very good employment data, and without cuts and with social peace. “We don’t boast of an economic miracle, we have already seen where the economic miracles end, they are still in the courts, but we manage the economy better. If last year I said at this forum that the economy was going like a motorcycle, this year we are going like a rocket,” concluded the PSOE leader, who is already preparing for the ideological clash in the campaign with a main event this weekend, with the arrival in Madrid of the Argentinian Javier Milei to participate in an event with Vox.
