Only 40% of ERC voters want Junqueras as president of the Generalitat

BarcelonaOnly 37.9% of ERC voters want Oriol Junqueras to be president of the Generalitat. This is one of the data that emerges from the opinion poll of the Institute of Political and Social Sciences (ICPS) that was made public this Wednesday. The data is not innocuous, but rather shows that the situation of internal division that the party has experienced in recent months has also reached its electorate. The disorientation is reflected in the second preference of those surveyed who declare themselves to be republican voters: they do not know which candidate they would prefer (21.6%) to be president of the Generalitat, while 12.6% support Carles Puigdemont, the leader of Junts. Precisely, among the voters of the Junts, it is the former president of the Generalitat who has unquestionable support (74.1%), a higher percentage than that received by Salvador Illa among PSC voters (61.1%).

In fact, the current president of the Generalitat is supported by the electorate of other parties, such as the PP: Popular Party voters prefer Isla (24.3%) over the president of his party, Alejandro Fernández (18.9%), to lead the Generalitat. He also receives the support of some of the voters of the Commons (16.3%). Jéssica Albiach, the current leader of the party in the Parliament, only receives 27.9% of support from his electorate, while the majority option in this space is not to choose any candidate (32.6%). Figures that show that the party has not found a replacement for the hyper-leadership that Ada Colau has exercised until now. The voters of Aliança Catalana would choose Sílvia Orriols with 72.7%, while Ignacio Garriga would receive 35.7% of support from his electorate.

Beyond the data by party, Salvador Illa is the preferred option of 20.6% of those surveyed to be president of the Generalitat. He is followed by Carles Puigdemont (14.5%) and Oriol Junqueras (10.7%), although both have lost support compared to a year ago (between two and three points). However, the majority of respondents (28.9%) do not get involved and do not give any name.

On the other hand, the No In the case of independence, support for Catalonia is as high as 56.7%, while those in favour of Catalonia leaving Spain are at 36.7%. The survey also reveals that, for the first time since 2011, there is a tie between those who want Catalonia to be an independent state (31.3%) and those who defend that it remains an autonomous community (30.6%). Among the ERC electorate, support for independence is the lowest in relation to the rest of the political parties and stands at 50%, while in Junts the support is at 77.8% and in the CUP, at 75.9%.

Support for democracy is down

The survey also provides another relevant fact: although democracy continues to be the preferred political system of those surveyed, there is a drop among the youngest, especially among men under 25 years of age: if 81.6% of those surveyed defend the democratic system, this percentage drops among younger men, among whom it becomes . In fact, 16% prefer an authoritarian system.

The survey also shows a conservative tendency among younger men: 30% are in right-wing positions, a percentage higher than the 10% of younger women. This is a trend that breaks with what had historically been the case: that older people were more right-wing, explained the director of the ICPS, Oriol Bartomeus, in a press conference. Younger men also have more conservative positions regarding feminism: only 40% support this concept, a percentage lower than the 57.7% a year ago.

In addition, there is also 60% of respondents who believe that democracy is threatened. Why? The main causes are: fake news, the extreme right and economic inequalities. However, among young people under 25 years of age, the percentage who consider that the extreme right threatens democracy drops to 53.2% compared to women of the same age (82.6%).

50% support limiting the entry of immigrants

The migration phenomenon is also another of the issues that the survey asked about. Support for immigration remains at 53.9% (a year ago it was almost 60%), but its detractors have risen to 28.1%. However, there is a relevant fact and that is that the number of supporters who believe that the entry of immigrants should be limited has grown by ten points and now there are 54% of respondents who defend it. Bartomeus attributes this to the "agenda effect", that is, that it is an issue that has an important weight on the public agenda.

The survey was carried out on a sample of 1,200 personal home interviews with the population aged 18 and over and has a margin of error of 2.8% for a confidence level of 95%. The survey was carried out by the GESOP company between November 7 and December 3, 2024.