The Barcelona April Fair has been without its own PP booth for seven years. The tent has been recovered in 2024, in the run-up to the Catalan elections on May 12, where the Popular Party aspires to quadruple the result of 2021 (which was the worst in its history: three deputies). Never have Catalan regional elections coincided with an absolute majority for the PP in Andalusia. And with that letter of introduction, the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, lands this Tuesday in Reus (Tarragona) to participate in the final stretch of the campaign. A trip that will continue on Wednesday and in which he will set foot in the four Catalan provinces. In parallel, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, participated this Monday in a rally in Barcelona and will return on Thursday for the final push.
Both territorial barons represent the counterpoint of the ideological spectrum of the PP – Moreno embodies a more moderate version, Ayuso the toughest -, and the two go to Catalonia at a time when Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party intends to “widen” its electoral space in this community, according to training sources.
The PP has set out to capitalize on the PSC vote “opposed” to the amnesty law and “discontent” with the concessions to the pro-independence parties, as Núñez Feijóo has repeated in his interventions and sources from Genoa and the Catalan PP emphasize privately. . Hence the repeated calls to concentrate the “constitutionalist” vote around the popular candidate, Alejandro Fernández. “Voting for Illa means continuing to give the independentists the Government of the Generalitat. Any Catalan who intends to put a stop to the independence process has the Popular Party as the only alternative. Voting for the PSC is the same as voting for Junts or Esquerra,” the PP parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, reiterated this Tuesday.
And the Popular Party finds in Moreno the greatest symbol of the transfer of the socialist electorate to the PP: almost 16% of the voters who in the 2018 Andalusian elections opted for the PSOE changed their ballot for that of the PP in the 2022 elections, according to the calculations of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS). Popular sources extol the importance of having Moreno in the Catalan campaign due to the important “protagonism of Andalusians residing in Catalonia.” According to a study by the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia with data from 2023, Catalonia continues to be the autonomous community where the largest number of Andalusians of origin reside: 495,719. On his journey, Moreno plans to meet with several Andalusian associations located in Lleida, Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona.
In addition to the weight of the Andalusian community in Catalonia, the PP highlights the “moderation and dialogue” that Moreno represents, “elements that are missing in current politics,” party sources add. Some ingredients that take on a new aspect for Génova, which after Pedro Sánchez’s period of reflection more forcefully accuses the president of promoting tension. And even more so when the campaign message has been “nationalized,” add sources from the Catalan PP, due to Sánchez’s twist in the script, sharpening the “fight” between socialists and popular ones.
“When you do what you have to, it is always worth it,” Feijóo proclaimed in Lleida after the president sent his letter to the citizens. “It is still difficult to be from the Popular Party of Catalonia, I know. I come from lands where it is very easy to be a member of the Popular Party of Galicia. I am going to other lands where now, after 40 years, it is very easy to be a member of the Popular Party of Andalusia. “I live in Madrid, where the majority of people are from the Madrid Popular Party,” he added.
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Sources from the popular leadership highlight that Moreno and Ayuso preside over the two largest autonomies of the 11 governed by the PP. “And in our vocation to comb the terrain we try to be in as many places as possible with as many people as possible,” they indicate. Both leaders also attended the campaign call in Galicia and the Basque Country. In the Xunta the absolute majority was reissued, but in the Basque elections the goal of Vox being left out of the regional Parliament was frustrated by consolidating its seat for Álava.
The extreme right won 11 seats in the 2021 Catalan elections, eight above the popular ones. Today, Genoa’s obsession is to be on top. Members of the executive point out that Moreno can attract votes from the PSC and, at the same time, they recognize the effect that the Madrid leader could have on the Vox voter. The extreme right, according to surveys, manages to maintain its space despite the growth of the PP, which rises mainly due to the collapse of Ciudadanos. The Madrid president already visited Barcelona on Monday, where she met with members of the restaurant sector and participated in a rally in which she attacked the PSC and the Government. “They always lie. You have already seen it in the La Moncloa soap opera this week,” Ayuso launched in reference to Sánchez’s letter. And he will return to Catalonia this Thursday.
The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, sent a letter to Feijóo this Monday demanding coordinated actions against Sánchez. A letter that the popular people refuse to answer, as Borja Sémper expressed. Of course, the PP spokesperson immediately stressed that they aspire to “widen” their space to the “left, right and center.” Moreno and Ayuso join the challenge.
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