Salvador Illa rallies Catalan socialists after poll drops: 'They won't bend us or silence us'

Poll setbacks

Two polls this week deepened the Socialists' worries. On Tuesday, a Sigma Dos survey for El Mundo projected that the PSC would lose up to nine seats in the Catalan parliament, falling from 42 to a band of 33–35, returning it to 2021 levels and erasing the advantage that let Illa form a government. On Thursday, the state-run CIS barometer showed the PSOE dropping 4.9 percentage points after a judge opened a tax-and-smuggling investigation into former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Though the CIS still places the PSOE first, the slide was sharp.

Government balance sheet and party pride

Confronting the numbers, Illa insisted the election match was not over. Borrowing a metaphor from the newly started World Cup, he said from the podium: "I see many who think the match is already won, but they're wrong. We're going to play it and we have very good players, the best." He predicted victory "not just barely, but by a landslide."

Illa called the eight-year record of Pedro Sánchez's government "excellent, no matter what you compare it with," citing a pandemic, a volcanic eruption, and two wars as headwinds. He rattled off achievements: the highest employment ever, the highest minimum wage in history, and pension revaluations. "We do the numbers for the citizens, not for investment funds or those who have the most," he said.

Municipal candidate rollout

The party council validated 126 mayoral candidates for the 2027 municipal elections. Nine will contest municipalities where the PSC has not fielded a list for years: Vallgorguina, Aitona, Sant Pere Pescador, Avinyonet de Puigventós, Torrelavit, Cabra del Camp, Vilanova de la Barca, L'Albagés, and Marganell. Terrassa, Catalonia's largest city without a socialist mayor, was singled out. Illa endorsed candidate Javi García, saying: "Terrassa has to open a new stage. Javi and the team around him will open it."

2024 seats42

2026 projection34

2024 seats

42

2026 projection

34

Data from the article text

Attacks on PP and immigration rhetoric

Illa swung at opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo for claiming Spain suffers from "the highest uncontrolled immigration in Europe." "Some still haven't understood that Spain is plural and diverse," Illa said. "Dignity does not come from a passport or a document; it comes from the start." He framed the ideological divide as one between a socialism that protects ordinary people and a right that looks after the rich, dismissing the world's billionaires: "Why do I care about a billionaire in the world? We care about ordinary citizens who move the country forward."

Judicial cases and presumption of innocence

With multiple corruption probes touching the PSOE, Illa acknowledged the party was not blind. "We are not naive, we see what is happening," he said. "Let me be very clear: the socialists will neither be bent nor silenced." He called for respect for the presumption of innocence and for the honour of persons and institutions. Praising Sánchez as "the voice of dignity" for advocating a world without wars, Illa told the faithful to walk "with their heads held high."