The battle between JxCat and ERC surfaces amid criticism of Illa

BarcelonaAlthough JxCat and ERC leaders' plan was to avoid attacking each other when the election campaign began, the struggle between coalition partners is becoming more and more evident at rally after rally. The two major pro-independence parties place the Cataln Socialist Party (PSC) as the target of their criticism, but lately allusions to "those who have always been in power" and corruption cases could be heard at ERC rallies. This is thinly veiled criticism of JxCat, whom ERC sees as a continuation of CDC, which governed Catalonia for decades and has been caught up in multiple corruption cases. JxCat isn't holding back either: ex president Carles Puigdemont has reproached ERC for their strategy in the Spanish Parliament. "They have been deceived," he said on Friday, or "Do not trust those who say that now the [Independence Referendum on] 1 Oct. no longer counts or is no longer valid," he said on Saturday.

On Sunday the former Catalan Minister Jordi Turull, in a rally from La Seu d'Urgell, the third since he has been moved to an open prison, reproached ERC, without naming them explicitly, for making "excuses" when it comes to carrying out the Independence Process: "In the end it is no longer known what the goal is". Elsa Artadi, a JxCat heavyweight, continued in the afternoon from Sabadell asking ERC to be "much more demanding" in Madrid. From Lloret de Mar, the candidate for ERC, Pere Aragonès, replied to JxCat - also without mentioning them - that independence is not attained either with "rhetoric" nor with "statements", while Teresa Jordà, ERC candidate for Girona, went straight for JxCat candidate Laura Borràs: "We are not children of the 1-O, we have been fighting and working for many years".

One of the proposals that have added strategic distance between JxCat and Esquerra has been the one Borràs launched on Saturday to "activate" the declaration of independence if pro-independence obtain over 50% of the votes on the February 14 elections. Both ERC and CUP have rejected the idea. Aragonès, in an interview with ARA, charged against those who entrust independence to "declaratory wills" that are like going "round in circles" and insisted that the independence movement needs to grow before a new onslaught. The CUP, for its part, has warned that independence will not be achieved "only by lifting the declaration of independence". Over three years later, that proclamation on October 27 remains an element of controversy among the forces that promoted it. And the campaign has become the stage for them to be displayed again.

Even so, JxCat and ERC political events do not revolve around their relationship, but the candidates spend most of their time attacking the PSC and the presidential candidate Salvador Illa. Both Borràs and Aragonès are trying to polarise the campaign between one of them and the socialist. "Either an Esquerra government or direct rule," Aragonès cried out at the rally. "Save us from this saviour who will not save us from anything," Laura Borràs ironised. But the reality is that the three parties are likely, according to the polls, to come joint first on February 14. Yesterday two new polls pointed in this direction. One by Antena 3 predicted a triple tie, whereas El Periódico gave the socialists between two and three seats of advantage. A scenario that is very reminiscent of the 2017 campaign, only changing Cs for the PSC.

Borràs's entourage also remembers what happened three years ago: they believe that, according to the demoscopes, they could end up inching ahead of ERC as happened in 2017. Then, the last weeks were decisive for Puigdemont to end up ahead of Junqueras. Now, party sources admit that the criticising ERC is not what will bring them more votes - the JxCat electorate cries for unity - and therefore will measure the message against ERC. The party also believes that highlighting that the prisoners "have been in prison longer with Pedro Sánchez than with Mariano Rajoy" is also a way to question ERC's strategy of supporting the socialist government without openly criticising them. In fact, so far only Puigdemont and Turull have referred to ERC, since Borràs has focused on setting herself up as the guarantee that there will not be a left-wing coalition.

ERC considers that when they have managed to turn campaigns into a duel with the PSC, as in the last two Spanish elections, they have come out winners. "Our rival is the PSC, we know whom we have to confront," say party sources. Even so, they follow closely the evolution of the demoscopic data. ERC cannot ignore that JxCat has grown in the polls, but they consider that there will be a certain "Junqueras effect" - when ERC's recently released president steps in - that will give them a decisive advantage to be able to win.

Casado puts pressure on PSC

The attacks on the PSC candidate, however, not only come from the ranks of the pro-independence movement but also from Cs and the PP, who accuse him of wanting to pact with pro-independence parties. On Sunday the leader of the PP in the State, Pablo Casado, landed in Badalona, where the PSC had allied with the pro-independence parties to kick out the PP's Xavier García Albiol, who regained the mayoralty in May 2020. Casado warned that "Pedro Sánchez has not sent Illa to defeat separatism, but to agree and shield their political survival". In the same vein, Carlos Carrizosa, candidate of Cs, warned of this possibility to try to retain unionist vote his party obtained in 2017, which the polls indicate it will lose it to PSC, the PP and Vox.

Meanwhile, the PSC is delighted with the new role that Catalan politics has reserved for it, always unpredictable. Until a few months ago no one would have said that it could compete with any chance of success in the race for the Generalitat, and now it is the object of most of the criticism from its political rivals, which only gives it a central role in the race. Enjoying this new role, the socialists yesterday took aim at both sides. Illa, against the independence movement for having "weakened Catalonia" and discredited the institutions. And his number two, Eva Granados, against En Comú Podem for "campaigning for ERC".