Infused with the aroma of meat on the barbecue, and with the traditional fideuà lunch bubbling in the pan, the Catalan Socialists (PSC) this Sunday showed their strength at the annual gathering of the party clans, La Festa de la Rosa - the Rose Festival. With exactly one month until the official start of the party's campaign for reelection, the meeting was a declaration of intent that has set the tone for the horse race to the 10th November polls. Some 25,000 people, according to the PSC, came to show their support for Pedro Sánchez this Sunday at the Pineda de Gavà, near Barcelona. An injection of morale and a call for mobilization to build a wall against "the dangers that persist: the right, and the independence movement".
Photo: ANC
The Socialist leaders arrived loaded with political ammunition and they discharged it liberally against the parties they consider are to blame for the need to repeat Spanish elections: the Podemos-Comuns and the Catalan independence movement. The line to be taken with the latter: no concession. The Socialists accuse them of "not condemning violence", following this last week's arrests and imprisonment of seven members of a CDR group, accused of terrorism. If, when the Supreme Court verdict is announced, the Catalan government and parliament return to disobedience - as was agreed in a motion passed this week in the Catalan chamber - and they "put their self-government at risk", Pedro Sánchez warned that the Socialist government will not lose its nerve, and "with serene firmness, will respond to defend social harmony, territorial integrity and national sovereignty." He did not spell out the three digits of the Constitutional article to which he was referring, but nor was it necessary, because everything was crystal clear.
Thus, the PSOE and PSC - respectively the Spanish Socialist party and its Catalan branch - have toughened their discourse to capture votes from a Ciudadanos party which has lost control. Iceta backed up Sánchez's threat of a new application of article 155 with another warning, that "there will be neither an amnesty nor a referendum, they have to propose things that are within the reach of politics." This is the PSC leader's response to the formula that the independence movement - and also the Comuns - have placed on the table as a route to the resolution of the Catalan conflict. The socialist recipe is: "law and dialogue", or to put it another way, dialogue only if it is within the current law. With nothing more specific than that.
There was more. Both Sánchez and Iceta offered praise, applause and gratitude to the work of the Spanish state's security forces, with a specific mention for the Civil Guard, after JxCat, ERC and the CUP had voted this week to expel the paramilitary force from Catalonia. A resolution, by the way, that the Spanish government will challenge via the Constitutional Court. At the same time, both Socialist leaders once again underlined the gravity of the Catalan government's alignment with the arrested CDR activists. "We are the ones who, when we hear about explosives, say we mustn't even talk about it, we've already suffered too much because a few dirtbags ruin everything", said Iceta.
"Neither 'moaners' (Cs), nor 'wishy-washies' (Podemos)"
The speeches this Sunday at the Festa de la Rosa also took aim at the parties on either side of the Socialists in terms of the left-right spectrum, that is, to the right, Ciudadanos, and to the left, Podemos. Miquel Iceta managed to invoke them both without mentioning them by name. Those on the right were accorded the label of "moaners" - alluding to Cs' talent for negative politics - those on the left as "wishy-washy", accusing Podemos of not daring to say what they think, so as not to fall out with the pro-independence parties." The solution, according to Iceta, is to fill the ballot boxes with Socialist votes, to avoid "having to depend on those who want to break up Spain or those who don't know whether they want the Civil Guard to leave or not."
The Catalan Socialist leader thanked Pedro Sánchez for his decision to call a repeat election: "rather than a bad government, elections, let the people decide." And he was especially hard with Podemos, affirming that "you're not left-wing if you vote against a Socialist prime minister four times".
The Socialist speakers of the Spanish Congress and Senate - Meritxell Batet and Manuel Cruz - who will once more head Socialist lists for these two chambers, also spoke. Batet spoke proudly about the achievements of the Socialist government, since Mariano Rajoy was removed from government a year ago by a no-confidence motion. The rise in the minimum wage, the reinstatement of universal health care, and the beginning of the process to "get the dictator out of the Valle de los Caídos." She also took the opportunity to point a finger at those responsible for the calling of repeat elections and absolve the PSOE of any responsibility for that.