24.05.2014 - 11:14
‘Reflection day’ gives candidates and voters a rest after fifteen days of the European election campaign. The parties have explained all that they could to the citizens who tomorrow will choose the people who will represent them in Brussels for the next five years. A good part of the campaign has focused on Catalonia’s sovereignty process and the need to send a clear message to Europe about the Catalans’ democratic will and determination. Both pro-sovereignty and unionist parties focused their campaign on the matter of independence in order to discuss positions for and against. The economy and the limits that need to be imposed on the troika (IMF, EC, ECB) were also recurring themes at the candidates’ events and debates. Yesterday, the parties held their closing campaign events to send their final messages to voters.
“Europe must respect the decision of the Catalan people on November 9”
The president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, asked Europe to respect the decision that the Catalans make on November 9. In the final campaign event for CiU in Barcelona, Mas highlighted the value of the Catalan language and culture, the economy, and the democratic movement that Catalonia is going through. “Since we bring so much to Europe, what can we ask for in return? We can ask that this Europe that we consider our own respects the democratic, peaceful decision of the people of Catalonia when it is made at the ballot boxes on November 9th,” he demanded. He also asked the Catalans, “I can tell you once more that we will not falter, nor will we turn back, but we need and I need the support of the people.”
“Between May 25 and November 9, we will be living in a constant election campaign”
Yesterday was the last day in the electoral campaign for the EU elections of May 25, but it was the beginning of the campaign for the November 9 referendum. “Between May 25 and November 9, we will be living in a constant election campaign,” said ERC’s president, Oriol Junqueras, during the final campaign event in Terrassa. “Our future is in the balance. We’re betting practically everything,” he said. There were many references to the referendum. The head of the party list, Josep-Maria Terricabras said that Catalonia would experience its first “collective victory” on May 25 and Marta Rovira, the party’s secretary general called for a high turnout to show Europe that the Catalan people wants to vote again.
“Europe belongs to the people and can be recovered with Primavera Europa [European Spring]
The head of the Primavera Europea list, Jordi Sebastià (Compromís) closed the campaign with two events, one in Castelló and the other in the Russafa neighborhood of Valencia. According to Sebastià, “this intense, hopeful campaign is over, in which Primavera Europea has been able to explain its proposals to the people for the Europe that we want, a Europe that should completely change its direction and work to rescue people.” “While the PPSOE [an acronym that refers to the two major rival parties in Spain as if they were one and the same] has kept up its theatrical performances, in which it looks like they are opposed to each other, in reality, they are hiding the pact that we all know they will carry out in the European Parliament. We know how to say what we want, what our priorities are: rescue the people, give opportunities to our young people, create jobs, bet on a sustainable, productive economy and stop helping speculators and those who have destroyed the economy,” said Sebastià.
“A choice between Schulz who will make a deal with Merkel or Keller who will change Europe”
The head of ICV-EUiA’s party list to the European Elections, Ernest Urtasun, demanded that the left make a choice during the closing event yesterday in Nou Barris. Urtasun reminded all of those people who had mobilized on the street to protest against education or healthcare cuts, evictions, or bank fraud, that tomorrow they have a date with the ballot boxes. “Voting ICV-EUiA is a double vote: once for the right to decide and once for a change in the economic policies and for anti-austerity,” he said. “Voting for us is a notice to the powerful that impunity is over,” said the national coordinator, Dolors Camats.
“Putting a brake on the rightist politics of Mas and Junqueras
The first secretary of the PSC, Pere Navarro, said that these elections were “very important for Catalonia” because the result could be used to “stop the rightist policies that Mas and Junqueras have been carrying out” with budget cuts, according to him, of 3 billion euros. The way to do it is to “be strong socialists in Europe, that we want a strong Catalonia within a federal Spain and within a federal Europe.” In the closing event yesterday, former minister Carme Chacón also spoke, regretting “that they had not been able to see the crisis in time (…) and were unable to give answers in time.” The PSC candidate, Javi López called for a good turnout in order to make the ballot boxes the citizens’ weapons.
“The party of agreement in Catalonia”
The final PP campaign event was peppered with a constant call to those who want victory for “agreement”, which according to the PP is what they represent, and not for the “radicals that want to silence us”. The protests and attacks were emphasized in the speeches by Spanish vice president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria, the number 2 on the list, Esteban González Pons, the president of the PP in Catalonia, Alícia Sánchez-Camacho, and the candidate Santiago Fisas. As the 750 attendees left the event, they were met by 100 demonstrators from the Platform against Evictions (PAH).
