The call for general elections on 29 November positions the PSC as Pedro Sánchez's main asset to reaffirm his leadership in Moncloa, while Junts faces the polls with the risk of losing influence in Congress.
The decision by Pedro Sánchez to dissolve the Cortes and call for general elections on 29 November has returned the spotlight to Catalonia, the territory that sustained the legislature and which may now be crucial for the governance of Spain. The announcement comes after Junts, alongside PP and Vox, rejected housing decrees in Congress, a setback that hastened the end of the legislature, as reported by elplural.com.
The PSC is the main asset of socialism in Catalonia. In the last general elections, the Catalan socialists secured 19 deputies and 1,221,335 votes in the region, numbers that were key for Sánchez to be invested as president and for the PP, with 6 seats and 473,620 votes, to be unable to govern with the support of Vox.
Polls anticipate that Catalonia will remain a socialist stronghold. The latest barometer from the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió de la Generalitat (CEO), published in July, gives the PSC between 17 and 18 seats and between 28% and 30% of the votes, which would confirm its status as a bastion of the PSOE.
"Catalonia will stand with Pedro. Now, more than ever"
The President of the Generalitat and first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has framed the elections as "the moment to decide between continuing to advance or going back" and expressed confidence that Catalonia will once again support Sánchez. The PSC has described the call as "timely" and will work "intensely" to mobilise its electorate.
The uncertainty lies in who will lead the socialist candidacy for Barcelona. Various sources confirm that Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, will be the head of the list, although the Catalan socialists have not yet made it official.
On the other side of the board, Junts faces the elections with the threat of losing seats. The post-convergents, who were decisive with their 7 deputies to invest Sánchez and to push initiatives in the Lower House, now see how the polls penalise them for their rapprochement with Feijóo and for their vote against the housing decrees.
Their main electoral threat, the far-right Aliança Catalana, will not compete in the elections, which alleviates part of the right flank, but does not dispel the risk of decline predicted by the polls. The party led by Sílvia Orriols is out of the race for Congress.
ERC, for its part, keeps Gabriel Rufián as the head of the list while waiting for the spokesperson in Congress to define the role he will play in the campaign. The republicans are also at stake for their presence in Madrid in a vote that, as in 2023, will again measure the correlation of independentist forces.
The rest of the Catalan parties have already reacted to the call. Most agree that the result in Catalonia will be decisive for the governance of Spain, as the seats distributed among the four provinces can tilt the balance towards a left-wing government or a conservative block with Vox.
The date with the polls will be on Sunday 29 November. Catalans will choose their representatives in Congress and the Senate in elections that come five months after the last general elections and that, for the first time in this legislature, will be held alone, without coinciding with other regional or municipal elections.
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