Vox defends the "Catalan identity" in Catalan on October 12th while the PP sees victory as certain

BarcelonaThe Hispanic Day in Barcelona has evidenced that the PP and Vox have antagonistic strategies in Catalonia. The traditional demonstration of civil Hispanism on Passeig de Gràcia, which gathered 1,700 people according to the Urban Guard, was marked by the electoral climate. Although the slogan of the march was Catalonia with Ceuta and it was full of flags of the autonomous city, the calling of Spanish elections was the true protagonist. Santiago Abascal's party is aware that they are strong in the Principality, currently more so than the PP in the polls, but the populars are weathering the storm of the sorpasso forecasting the triumph they take for granted in the State. The notable flight of voters or sympathizers from Aliança towards Vox in the Spanish elections –at least around 22%, according to the CEO– allows us to understand the multiplication of messages to seduce Sílvia Orriols' voters in the middle of October 12th. It must be taken into account that Aliança is not running in these elections.

Catalan was the majority language of the act that Vox held at the Plaça del Rei in the capital in defense of the "Catalan identity". The general secretary of the radical right-wing party, Ignacio Garriga, was clear: "Only united will we be able to continue defending the security, freedom, identity and future of our children". And he even made two clarifications: "Vox will truly defend the interests of Catalonia in Congress" and that it is necessary to "vote massively for Vox because it is the only way to guarantee security, prosperity, freedom and our Catalan identity".

Following the dichotomy also reproduced by Orriols of "either civilization or barbarism," the party has insisted on the message of "unity" of Catalans around Vox and against Islam that Abascal already defended. At the same time, it has reiterated that "Spain is the union of all peoples," in the words of representative Júlia Calvet. Because Garriga has suggested that the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez –who received all kinds of insults during the march–, would change the date of the "national holiday" to April 28 to commemorate the arrival of the Muslims to the peninsula in 711. Ultimately, he made a call to "forget the squabbles between one another, because what lies ahead is the threat of migratory invasion," which "threatens survival, that Catalonia continues to be Catalonia." Parliamentary spokesperson, Joan Garriga, also gave a fiery speech, almost entirely in Catalan, to defend Catalan identity within Spain: "Raise the flags, up with the senyera; our flag of the saltires; the Cross of Saint George, symbol of our Christian civilization; and our national ensign," he exclaimed.

The PP, in its own way

Unlike the Vox path, the PP has chosen its own way and did not want to hold its own event, but rather participated in the demonstration with a brief prior intervention by the Catalan leader, Alejandro Fernández. He made a "recognition of the Ceuta compatriots," "abandoned and humiliated by the government of Spain" and proclaimed that "soon there will be a change in Spain that will allow them to be protected." In a message "of hope," he defended that after "eight years in which lies, division, and polarization have been fostered and the idea of the two irreconcilable Spains has been recovered," "now a change will arrive that will serve to reunite the Spanish people around a common project": Spain, "one of the great nations of the world," according to Fernández.

The Popular Party remained in the background in a demonstration in which a good part of the attendees came from the Vox event. For this reason, like last year, the far-right took center stage in the march and the chants such as "social aid for nationals," "Christian and not Muslim Spain," or "Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch." Despite this, only 1,700 people participated in the demonstration, which is drastically on the decline compared to the times of the 'Procés'. They are more than last year, which barely had hundreds of protesters, or than in 2023, with 500.

The electoral context has basically allowed us to verify, in the protest, the antagonistic strategies. Vox is accelerating the hunt for Aliança votes and insists on the strategy of stealing them from socialist strongholds. And the PP still has to designate the Catalan candidate for the Spanish elections, having the mayor of Badalona, Xavier Garcia Albiol, as one of those whom Génova would prefer, although it is true that the great protagonist of the campaign will be Alberto Núñez Feijóo.