María Jesús Cañizares, 23 July 2023
Meritxell Batet, during her appearance at the PSC election headquarters in Barcelona, together with the minister Raquel Sánchez, the first secretary, Salvador Illa and the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, among other leaders – EUROPA PRESS
ERC and Junts, who disagree on a virtual investiture of Sánchez, only win 14 seats out of 48 allocated in Catalonia after an election in which the Socialists swept the board and the PP tripled its results.
A divided pro-independence movement that was swept aside by the PSC at the polls. It is no anecdote that ERC and Junts only win 14 seats in Congress out of the 48 allocated to Catalonia, while the CUP disappears from the Spanish map. It has had to be a general election that has given the final blow to a processism that Junts per Catalunya has tried to keep alive without success, as the supposed guardian of the essences, with Miriam Nogueras, Carles Puigdemont’s protégé at the helm, has lost one seat compared to 2019, tying with Sumar and ERC.
Esquerra, as the polls predicted, has collapsed. As had already happened in the municipal elections. This is especially significant in the case of the party that governs Catalonia, albeit with a minority that now compromises the future of President Pere Aragonès in the face of a resounding victory for the PSC.
The Catalan identity axis
The Socialists, who won 19 seats compared to 12 four years ago, are consolidating their central position in Catalonia. But also the shift to the left in a community such as Catalonia, where the process imposed an identity axis that diluted the traditional models of society.
Thus, while Junts has played at activism, thus hiding its conservative mood, Esquerra also left its progressive DNA in the background. The Republicans vetoed the PSC from any kind of pact, although in this previous term it gave dialogue a chance by building bridges with the PSOE in the form of an investiture and parliamentary stability.
Polarisation
The independence challenge and the consequent application of Article 155 of the Constitution – supported by the PP and PSOE – sharpened this polarisation between pro-independence and constitutionalism. A polarisation that continues, but with serious damage to ERC and Junts. The former have lost no less than six MPs, while the neo-convergents now aspire to be decisive in the scenario of pacts that is now opening up at the Spanish level.
During the campaign, Junts assured that it would only support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez if he committed to a referendum on independence. Something that neither the PSOE, much less the PP, has any intention of doing. In fact, Junts was left alone in this demand, as it failed to drag Esquerra along, while Sumar abandoned the commons’ equidistance – marked by Ada Colau, now in retreat – and defended a consultation on the agreements reached between the government and the Generalitat, not a referendum.
Sumar, in second place
The Common Party, which went to the polls under the personal brand of Yolanda Díaz, came in second place. They have won the same number of seats as in 2019, but the collapse of ERC – who had chosen Sumar as their main rival -, the disappearance of the CUP and the decline of Junts has allowed them to move from fourth to second place, thus configuring a tripartite in the lead – PSC, Sumar and ERC, in that order – with an uncertain future.
Or not so far-fetched, if ERC wants to maintain its influence on the Catalan political scene. Pere Aragonès has always assured that the results of the general elections would not condition his decision to bring forward the regional elections, but the polls have sent a clear message to pro-independence supporters. The procés is now history and management is what matters now to the Catalans. Management understood as economic and social models. Right or left.
Bipartisanship
ERC candidate Gabriel Rufián lamented that Spanish polarisation had invaded the elections in Catalonia. The fact that the PSC has won convincingly and that the PP, considered a marginal party, has gone from two deputies to six deputies, exemplifies this change in trend.
If the two-party system is gaining ground in this community, it is not the result of a problem of voter reading comprehension, but of the resistance of the pro-independence movement to admit that its time is passing.
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