The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal and the refusal by right-wing parties of the housing decrees promoted by the Spanish government have been the trigger for 29-N. And housing has been precisely one of the issues that has most polarized the first electoral debate of Catalan candidates held this Sunday on RTVE. It has been the issue that, together with the immigration debate, has allowed for a clearer visualization of the two blocs that will face off on November 29. In fact, the left-wing parties, especially the ERC candidate, Gabriel Rufián, and the one from Comuns - Front Ampli, Ernest Urtasun, have fought to position themselves as the battering ram against the PP and Vox, and also against Junts. The PSC, with Jordi Hereu at the helm, let the battle pass him by.

Catalonia, as it happened in 2019, will once again be a key territory ahead of the next general elections. Three years ago, the socialists managed to retain the Spanish government thanks, essentially, to how the Catalan electorate voted, where the PSC won the elections. Looking towards November 29th, all polls predict another victory for the candidacy that this time will be led by Jordi Hereu, but without it being as resounding as it was three years ago. ERC, for example, is the party that comes closest to it, while the Comuns would plummet, and the left-wing parties would be condemned to lose representatives. The electoral race until November 29th will bring to the surface the disputes in a Catalan key that are not cut from the same pattern as the state ones.PSC vs. ERC: struggle between allies

Since Pedro Sánchez called for elections, it has become clear that the paradigm of this election will be based on the left-right axis, and this is where the battle that ERC and the PSC have maintained over the last decade—especially in the metropolitan area—takes even more shape. Despite the alliance in the Government of the Generalitat and the government pacts in various city councils, the two parties are trying to fish in a part of the electorate that they share. And this is visualized above all in general elections. According to the latest barometer of the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO), the socialists have a leakage of votes of up to 11% towards ERC. On the other hand, this leakage is reduced within the republican ranks: 8% of those surveyed would opt for the PSC ballot.

As the days go by, the PSOE tries to put behind it the crisis over the railway tragedy in Urda (Toledo) and tries to refocus on the campaign that had begun before the accident that left 69 dead. This is what Pedro Sánchez did this Saturday from Tarragona: appealing to the dilemma of a progressive government in the face of the "far-right international" that in Spain is personified by the PP and Vox. The Spanish prime minister, however, added an element that until a few days ago he could not yet use in his favor: the victory of the Democrats in the United States, which is added to that of Lula da Silva in Brazil to give hope to the Spanish left-wing electorate. For this reason, the socialist leader has called for mobilization and has asked for a "broad majority" that will allow stopping the aspirations of the PP and Vox to reach the Spanish government. "If we vote en masse, we send Feijóo and Abascal home," shouted Sánchez.

Taking a look at reality, I believe that today a reflection is needed on the discomfort that the world we live in causes us. Every day gives us a different reason. For example, I find the cyberattack that has affected dozens of supermarkets in Europe to be of a particularly refined evil. At night, someone ordered the machines to go from sub-zero temperatures to 50 degrees. The result is that tons and tons of food have been spoiled. I say that I find it of a particularly refined evil in the sense of being psychologically refined. No one was hurt, the attack caused financial damage, but above all, it has made us feel vulnerable where it hurts the most: making a reality of the dystopia of going shopping and seeing that there is no food. If someone wanted to send the message that they have us in their hands with a simple cyberattack, they have succeeded.

She had never considered dedicating herself to politics. Now she is the new head of the PSC list for Lleida in the general elections of November 29th. "In my life, everything is the result of coincidences," explains Cristina Morón (Lleida, 1979) with a laugh. For several years, she was the point person for the dependency law at the Lleida City Council, where she worked as a social worker. After a conversation with Fèlix Larrosa, she received an offer to enter municipal politics. Now, a new unexpected proposal has changed her plans once again: "It was four-thirty in the afternoon and I received a WhatsApp call from a number I did not have registered, and it says: 'I am Salvador Illa, can you talk?'", explains Morón regarding the conversation in which she was proposed to head the PSC list for Lleida in Congress, after the resignation of Montse Mínguez. The decision came to her with little time to think it over, half an hour before the party's national council began. "Imagine how my heart was pounding," she recalls in conversation with the ARA.

Montse Mínguez resigns after the scandal that has been generated in recent days by her partner's real estate businesses. The PSOE spokesperson announced this Friday that she is "taking a step back" with a "clear conscience" in a statement published on social media. "I have made the decision convinced that it is the best for the collective project to which I have dedicated my best energies," she asserts. In this way, Mínguez will not repeat as the head of the PSC list for Lleida in the next Spanish elections, as was planned, and the number 1 for the socialists in the Lleida constituency will be the Paeria councilor Cristina Morón, as approved in the party's national council this Friday.

The PSC would win the Spanish elections again as it did in 2023, with an incontestable victory like the one it achieved three years ago. This is the forecast made by the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) a month and a half before the elections. Salvador Illa's party would also win the Catalan elections, but with a narrower margin than in 2024, with ERC and Aliança Catalana fighting for second place. This is clear from the second barometer of 2026, which was presented this Wednesday with a survey conducted between September 1st and October 5th, just the day before Pedro Sánchez called early elections.

What is happening with Gabriel Rufián is what was bound to happen to Esquerra sooner or later. For years now, the speeches of Esquerra's leader in Madrid have sounded more like Podemos or Sumar than Esquerra. He often ignores the possibility of speaking in Catalan. He has ended up designating himself as the critical conscience of the Spanish left. His level of popularity in Spain among voters in this segment is enormous; Rufián knows how to polarize and, living up to his phrase “Less libraries and more TikTok,” his ability to gain audiences on social media is great. He has declared himself willing to head a plurinational list of all the parties to the left of the PSOE. And his party has told him no. At the time of writing this analysis, Rufián has still not decided to be the head of Esquerra's list under the conditions that the party wants.

It matters little the crisis in Ceuta, the decline in the polls, and the judicial investigations that are besieging the president of the Spanish government. The PSC stands by Pedro Sánchez, from the president of the Generalitat to the rank and file. The support is absolute and the audience is noisy. The thousands of attendees at the Rose Festival would not even let the mayor of Gavà, Gemma Badia, who opened the event, speak. "President, president... You are not alone, you are not alone," they shouted. Salvador Illa's speech, which focused largely on praising the PSOE leader, was also accompanied by clamor and applause dedicated above all to the Spanish president. Everyone wanted to hear Pedro. When, at last, his turn came, some people in the audience asked everyone to sit down so they could see him better. The great protagonist of the evening did not disappoint them and promised that he would not throw in the towel: "I will govern until 2031 and beyond." The best, by Tina Turner, and Sánchez said goodbye amidst more chants of "president, president" and "you are not alone, you are not alone".

The Transition in Catalonia posed a double challenge for the post-Franco authorities. On one hand, a unified opposition movement had taken hold with a clear demand for self-government. On the other, Catalan society was ideologically positioned on the left, with a weight of communists and socialists unprecedented in the Spains and, therefore, susceptible to leading the democratic autonomism. Seen from Madrid—and contradicting the cliché of “rather a red Spain than a broken one”—, the second eventuality was more feared than the first, given that it was seen as possible to control a future Generalitat through a reduction (or subsequently harmonization) of powers and/or an institution in more favorable hands (the local UCD) or in representatives capable of confronting the Marxist bias (be it the historic Josep Tarradellas, or the rising Jordi Pujol).At least that is the working hypothesis of the economist and historian Eloi Gummà (Barcelona, 1996). Based on his doctoral thesis, From Anti-Francoism to Pujolism (Akal) he attempts to explain how Catalonia went from a democratic opposition leaning to the left to an autonomism leaning towards the right. That is to say, through what circumstances the reference party went from being the PSUC to the Convergència i Unió coalition, and the collective leadership represented by the Assembly of Catalonia was ceded to the personalism of Jordi Pujol.The fight for hegemony

According to Gummà, the explanation must be sought, as stated in the book's subtitle, in "the struggle for hegemony". The global neoliberal wave at the end of the Cold War synchronized with the counterattack led in Spain by the governments in Madrid and by the employers' associations. It was about political and economic initiative against the left, the unions... In this sense, the author's ambition, to raise pertinent and uncomfortable questions and to place the Catalan narrative within international dynamics, is to be appreciated. Even more so for doing it in Catalan –despite some inconsistency when translating the citations–, within this new essay collection (Veus de Clio), directed by the historian –and author of the prologue and director of the thesis– Xavier Domènech.The complicity between Gummà and Domènech is evident—not only because of the occasional informal 'Xavi' that we read. Both of them belong to the historiographical school that, starting from the now emeritus Pere Ysàs and Carme Molinero, has vindicated the decisive role played by the communist environment in making the continuity of the dictatorship impossible upon Franco's death, in mending the Catalan social fabric, and in positioning Catalonia as a spur for democratic and autonomous demands. However, this genealogy is not exempt from some debatable interpretations.On the one hand, there is a certain Manichaeism in characterizing the unitary anti-Francoism around the PSUC as the ideal, perhaps without bearing in mind that democratic dynamics needed to integrate sectors that did not participate in the struggle for freedoms. Without taking importance away from the role of the opponents, they represented only a part of the entire citizen universe. On the other hand, there is an uncritical acceptance of the image created by Pujolism itself. Certainly, for 23 years the Generalitat acted as if it were a national and hegemonic government. However, in those same years we have a vote differential (lower participation in regional elections) and consolidated majorities in favor of the left in many municipalities (including the large ones) and, above all, in Madrid. Sometimes, the temptation of conspiracy theories can distract us from more mundane explanations.

The PSC and Comuns have once again been absent this year from the Catalan Summer University (UCE) in Prada de Conflent. The space for training and reflection of Catalanism and sovereignty in the Catalan Countries has a marked pro-independence accent, but all Catalanist formations have been welcome and the PSC has historically been present. Comuns have also not attended this year and no CUP leader has intervened, unlike Junts and ERC or other extra-parliamentary parties like Alhora. What are the reasons for these absences?

On August 8, exactly two years ago, the investiture of Salvador Illa hung by a thread. That day, all eyes were on Carles Puigdemont. The former president's return ended up being fleeting and marked a day that culminated with the PSC leader being designated as the new president of the Generalitat thanks to the votes of ERC and Comuns. Since then, Illa has wanted to establish his Government as the one that has "turned the page" on the Process. The one that has put housing at the center of its priorities and also the one that has agreed with ERC and the Spanish government on a new financing system for Catalonia. However, Illa is also the president with the deepest educational crisis in recent years and the one who has had to face the chronic chaos of Rodalies. Past the halfway point, the socialist government faces the second part of the legislature with the first – and perhaps the only – budgets secured. It is the guarantee of stability that Illa was looking for to reach the end of the term – although the socialists do not rule out presenting those for 2027–. However, the Government still has assignments to resolve before reaching the end of a legislature that will also have external variables that will fully impact it, such as the next municipal and general elections, or the possible return of Carles Puigdemont.

Salvador Illa reaches this Saturday the equator of his term at the head of the Generalitat, and he arrives facing a phenomenon well known to political science: the wear and tear of government action. Demoscopics show us that after the victory at the polls, the PSC experienced an upturn. However, as the legislature has progressed and the harshness of daily management has taken hold, citizen support has suffered a constant and progressive decline until hitting rock bottom and settling at the lowest point of support since the start of the term. How is this cycle of loss of popularity explained and what real options does the PSC have to regain lost ground before the next elections?

In the midst of the housing crisis, the Government has made officially protected housing (HPO) one of its flagship projects. This Friday, the PSC and Comuns have presented a bill to accelerate the creation of officially protected housing that includes five measures, one of which is to give interested owners the option to convert commercial premises, offices, and hotels into protected apartments. According to sources close to the negotiation, "if everything went well and the entire package of measures worked" it could serve to incorporate up to 20,000 apartments. "It was an unavoidable priority to expand the stock of protected housing and ensure that housing fulfills its essential function of being a home," defended the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, at the joint presentation of this regulation alongside the leader of Comuns, Jéssica Albiach.

A decade ago, when a President of the Generalitat landed in Madrid, it was to defend the possibility of Catalonia voting in a referendum on independence. Artur Mas did it first; then Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and, finally, Pere Aragonès. Ten years later, however, with new majorities in Parliament, the Catalan government presents itself as the best guarantee of "institutional cooperation" and "loyalty" to the Spanish government's project. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, starred this Monday in a press breakfast in the Spanish capital, organized by Efe and RTVE, in which he highlighted the moment that Catalonia without the Procés is experiencing: the Generalitat has budgets; it "leads" the new financing proposal where all autonomous communities gain resources, and it is synonymous with "stability". In addition, he has called for "speed" in applying the amnesty law, hitting a nerve with those like the PP and Vox who accuse the PSOE of reviving independence: "It is the first time in forty years that there has been no nationalist and independence majority. It has not revitalized, on the contrary [...]. I know what I'm talking about".

It will probably not surprise anyone if we state that Salvador Illa is the main pillar that Pedro Sánchez has left in Spain. The current head of the Catalan executive was the PSOE leader's bet to reconquer the Palau de la Generalitat in 2021 after years of independence governments. He did not achieve it at first, but after three years of waiting, the socialists returned to preside over the Government.Their idyll had been born from Illa's time as Minister of Health: it was in the midst of the pandemic when the two socialist leaders forged a bond, political and personal, that has not cracked with the passage of years. Not even now, when the Spanish president is going through his worst moment of the legislature, besieged by various judicial cases that involve his closest political and personal circle. In fact, it is now that Salvador Illa has shown him his most unconditional support. Also at the risk of tying his political future to the fate of the Spanish president.

July will be a thrilling month for the Ministry of Finance. Not only because it has put underway the machinery to present the 2027 budgets –with the vote on the stability path in Congress and the presentation of the spending ceiling–, but because it will be key to the funding model. After almost two years of negotiation with Esquerra and the Generalitat, this week the ministry plans to send the draft of the new funding system law in writing and July 29th minister Arcadi Spain will make it official in a new meeting of the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy. And it will be at this meeting that all common-regime autonomies (the Basque Country and Navarre are excluded) will vote against the model, with the exception of Catalonia.

"Cutting down trees is not a crime", said Salvador Illa this Monday in an interview with RAC1. The President of the Generalitat called for a "change of mentality" in forest management and argued that "the forest must be managed". A few months ago, Parliament modified part of a Government decree on measures related to the agricultural and forestry sector. What exactly changed?

Franco had just died, Arias Navarro was still president and the country lived between hope and fear. In this context, fifty years ago, the Rally for Freedom was held, the first major democratic political event authorized in Catalonia since the end of the war, which boosted the PSC and gathered 15,000 people. Raimon Obiols (Barcelona, 1940) was one of the participants and this year the Government, through the Directorate General of Democratic Memory, and the Rafael Campalans Foundation paid tribute to him at the Barcelona Bar Association.

Salvador Illa will reach the midpoint of the legislature with the political stability he sought. This Thursday, Parliament has definitively approved the budgets that he agreed upon a few weeks ago with Esquerra and Comuns, the two investiture partners, who this morning added their votes to validate the first accounts of the socialist government – Junts deputy Noemí Nieto also voted in favor by mistake. Accounts that will reach almost 50,000 million euros, 22% more than those of 2023, the last project still approved under the presidency of Pere Aragonès. This Thursday's plenary session also validated the budget accompanying law, which includes, among other things, increasing the tourist tax to 30 euros per day for cruise ships calling at Barcelona and creating the Catalan Airport Authority. Illa thus guarantees himself to reach the end of the legislature with updated budgets and a parliamentary majority that requires the Government to continue for its agreements to be fulfilled.