Catalan parties clash on housing, rail and the centre ground before 29 November vote

Junts and Illa spar over the centre ground

Miriam Nogueras, Junts' candidate for Congress, answered on Sunday 8 November the Catalan president Salvador Illa, who had criticised her party the day before for wanting to position itself in the centre. She said the real irritation was that the people in the middle are growing every day, and credited her party with making co-official languages usable in Congress. Citing a Junts statement, she recalled that only a few years ago socialists had expelled Catalans from the Cortes for speaking Catalan.

“Perhaps what bothers him is not that we are in the middle, but that those of us in the middle are growing every day.”

Nogueras also accused the PSC and ERC of not standing up for Catalonia when they had the chance. She set out the management of Catalans' resources and the defence of the language as her priorities, and said these would be the main issues she would raise in the candidates' debate that Sunday night. One condition for any negotiation with Junts, she added, is that Catalans' money be collected, managed and decided in Catalonia.

ERC asks for more strength after the vote

ERC held a pre-campaign event in Badalona (Barcelona) on Sunday 8 November, which the party said drew about 2,000 people. Its president, Oriol Junqueras, asked for support so that ERC could push changes on housing, financing and public services after the 29N elections. He argued that if ERC does not lead those changes, nobody will.

“If ERC does not do it, nobody does.”

Gabriel Rufián, ERC's candidate for Barcelona, defended an integrating party that brings together people who share values such as justice, democracy and freedom. He criticised Junts for claiming to be patriots while, in his words, voting with the PP and Vox, and he defended ERC's agreement with Podemos for the 29N elections. Junqueras and Rufián were joined on stage by candidates numbered 2, 3 and 6 for Barcelona, along with ERC's Badalona spokesperson and mayoral candidate Àlex Montornés.

Housing and rail dominate the Barcelona debate

The debate, moderated by Gemma Nierga and Lluís Falgàs and organised by RTVE Cataluña, brought together the Barcelona list leaders: Jordi Hereu (PSC), Xavier García Albiol (PP), Ernest Urtasun (Frente Amplio/Comuns), Gabriel Rufián (ERC), Míriam Nogueras (Junts) and Juanjo Aizcorbe (Vox). Housing was the sharpest clash, centred on a government decree that failed in Congress after PP, Vox and Junts voted against it, which triggered the early election. Albiol said the measure put tenants who cannot pay on the same level as those who can but do not, and that a PP government would repeal it if it was still in force. Rufián called non-payers a small group of shameless individuals and said most people are closer to eviction than to occupying a home.

Urtasun, acting Culture minister, criticised the PP-run regions for not applying a price cap that he said works elsewhere. Hereu, acting Industry minister, warned that PP and Vox threaten Catalonia's identity, language and self-government. On rail, Hereu and Urtasun absorbed criticism over the network's decline after eight years of coalition government, while Albiol pledged an independent review and 20,000 million for a maintenance plan if the PP wins. Nogueras and Rufián clashed over Junts' proposal to transfer all trains to Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat. The left-right axis dominated the evening, with the progressive forces and at times Junts united in warning about a PP and Vox government.