Catalonia monopolizes 30% of the Andalusian president's speeches

MadridThe day after the Andalusian elections on May 17, the "process of fiscal cession and privileges to Catalan separatism will be restarted". This is the thesis of Juanma Moreno, the PP candidate, presented during the first week of the electoral campaign in Andalusia. And this, as this newspaper published less than a month ago, the new Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, has even closed the door to the total collection of personal income tax. Nevertheless, this argument serves Moreno to argue that a "strong" and "stable" government is needed to "confront this injustice". Vox also resorts to Catalonia, using the old argument of comparative grievance between Catalans and Andalusians against the PSOE candidate, María Jesús Montero, España's predecessor at the head of the Spanish Treasury. In fact, the hypothesis that the right-wing parties fuel is that the PSOE is temporarily deceiving Andalusians so as not to harm Montero in the electoral race. They also reproach him for the new regional financing model agreed with ERC, which they claim harms Andalusia, even though it would add almost 5,000 million euros annually, when Moreno was asking for 4,000, at least until the end of last year.

the new regional financing model agreed with ERCHowever, on average, the party with the highest percentage of mentions of Catalonia is Vox with 15%. Through artificial intelligence models, Sanjaume has concluded that both the PP and the far-right are the ones who most use this issue as an electoral weapon and that they have spoken about it mostly from a sentiment of hostility with pejorative, aggressive or alarmist language, expressed with the use of words like coup plotters, blackmail, rupture or privileges. The left-wing parties –the PSOE, Per Andalusia and Endavant Andalusia– have done so with a more neutral or institutional tone and, those who have spoken about it with a more empathetic or positive sentiment are the socialists, who have had to defend Montero's pact with ERC.

The issue of financing is currently the main discursive axis when talking about Catalonia, as evidenced by the fact that the person who, proportionally, has spoken about it the most is the Andalusian Minister of Economy and Finance, Carolina Spain. Of the times she has intervened in the regional parliament, she has referred to it in more than half of them. It is precisely the PP that is one of the parties that has most evoked Catalonia with a framework of economic grievance, along with Endavant Andalusia, a left-wing party that, unlike the PSOE and Per Andalusia, is disconnected from the Spanish government, waves the Andalusian flag, and explicitly rejects singular financing. Unlike other periods, such as the 2018 Andalusian elections marked by the 'Procés', the focus on independence as a constitutional threat is lesser, and it is Vox that uses this framework the most.

In fact, PP sources consulted by this newspaper maintain that, in Moreno's strategy, Catalonia has much less weight than in previous stages and that the acting Andalusian president does not mention it from an anti-Catalanist perspective. If he does so in this electoral campaign, they add, it is due to the attack on his socialist rival for having yielded on the issue of financing to the independence movement in order to keep Pedro Sánchez in Moncloa. "Compared to what other campaigns may have been, I don't have the perception that territorial grievance is used so much," reflects Juan Manuel Trujillo, a professor of political science at the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, in a conversation with ARA. According to Trujillo, Vox prioritizes focusing on national priorities, positioning foreigners as a problem over Catalonia, and the PP focuses on management and the need for stability with a view to revalidating the absolute majority. This political scientist frames Moreno's discursive use of Catalonia mainly within the objective of contrasting his proposal with Sánchez's parliamentary weakness.

Illa's role

In any case, one way or another, Catalonia is present in the speeches of Andalusian politicians. To the point that Salvador Illa has responded to some of the mentions made by the PP. In an interview with Cadena SER this Friday, the President of the Generalitat urged Moreno to make a proposal to improve financing and reproached him for saying, in an interview with Abc, that Montero "should be given the Creu de Sant Jordi for her favors to separatists". However, the leader of the PSC will not be in Andalusia to campaign with the PSOE candidate. Government sources explain that Illa offered to go, but that it has been impossible for scheduling reasons. It is not lost on anyone, however, that the presence of the President of the Generalitat would have given the right an opportunity to redouble attacks against Montero. Even sources from Génova were amazed that the PSOE was willing to give them this opportunity to wear her down even more.