Albiol stakes two PP seats in Lérida and Gerona to bring Feijóo closer to Moncloa

Génova has tasked Xavier García Albiol with ensuring the PP secures one deputy from Lérida and another from Gerona in the general elections on November 29, two seats that the popular party has achieved on very few occasions.

The PP needs **two seats** more in Catalonia to aspire to govern. According to ABC, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has asked **Xavier García Albiol** to travel throughout the community during the **general elections on November 29**, with the aim of bringing representation to **Lérida** and **Gerona**. In Génova, they believe that if they succeed, reaching Moncloa would be closer.

Historical figures explain the difficulty. In **Lérida**, the PP has had a deputy in **eight** of the **16** general elections between **1977** and **2023**. In **Gerona**, they have only achieved this in **three**: during **Felipe González**'s victory in **1982** and in the absolute majorities of **José María Aznar** in **2000** and **Mariano Rajoy** in **2011**.

It is precisely in Gerona that the popular leadership's optimism is based. Each time the PP has secured a deputy in that province in the last two elections, they have ended up governing with an absolute majority. In Lérida, however, this pattern does not hold: of the **eight** times the PP had a representative since **1982**, they only ensured forming a government half the time.

In **2023**, Feijóo fell **285 votes** short of securing the deputy in Gerona, with **0.9%** more support, and **3,509 votes** in Lérida, with **14.8%** more. Nevertheless, in Lérida, the party has a strong candidate, **Xavi Palau**, provincial and capital leader, who aims to surprise in the **municipal elections**.

The polls are not favourable. If the latest data from the **Centre for Opinion Studies** of the Generalitat is projected onto these two provinces, the PP would still have no representatives in Congress. According to an estimation by ABC using the microdata from that centre and the results from 2023, **ERC** would win the seat lost by the PSC in Lérida, while **Vox** and **ERC** would share the seats of **Junts** and **Sumar** in Gerona.

The real obstacle for the PP in Catalonia is **Vox**, which in the last elections has been the direct competitor of the popular party in the right-wing space, something that previously occurred with **Ciudadanos**. Between **2015** and **2016**, the PP and Ciudadanos competed for the same voters and shared the seats almost equally.

The bar is set high. **Aznar** achieved **12 Catalan seats** in **2000** and **Rajoy** **11** in **2011**. In contrast, the sum of PP, Vox, and Ciudadanos was **eight** seats in **2023**, and the PP obtained **six** in the general elections of **November 2019**. Albiol must surpass those six deputies, compete with the socialists and the independents, and also secure deputies in Lérida and Gerona.

“We were four seats short of governing, and two of them were here, in Lérida and Gerona,” Feijóo recalled on Sunday in Barcelona.

For the Catalan reader, the key is whether the PP can make its message resonate outside the metropolitan area of Barcelona. The results from **Lérida** and **Gerona** on **November 29** will determine if the party achieves that territorial presence in the community.