The Comuns - the nickname which has become official for the alternative left political space centred on Catalunya en Comú, "Catalonia in Common" - face the 12th May election campaign with a clear dilemma: what should they do with the Catalan Socialists (PSC)? After more than four years of cohabitation in the Spanish government, the political spaces of the "purple" party and the Socialists have got quite comfortable together in Madrid. A relationship which initially seemed impossible to reconcile, has sweetened over time - especially after Yolanda Díaz took over as second deputy PM and reference point for the junior coalition partner, following the resignation of then-Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias. There are few disputes - at least public ones - between the party grouping headed by Díaz and prime minister Pedro Sánchez, with shared priorities and a political direction that does not cause havoc. But in Catalonia, the opposite is true. The candidate for the Comuns on May 12th, Jéssica Albiach, shows day after day her discomfort with the priorities and drifting course of the PSC led by Salvador Illa.
It can't be said that it's surprising, because some of the proposals made by the Catalan Socialists during the last legislature, since former Spanish health minister Illa took charge, have shown anything but a left-wing profile as they strategically attempt to capture votes from the electorate on the other side of the ideological fence. The demand to move forward on the Hard Rock gambling resort, the expansion of Barcelona airport and the B-40 metropolitan beltway are the three most glaring examples, and the PSC has defined all three as 'red line' issues before they would lend their votes to Pere Aragonès's budgets in recent years. In addition, taking advantage of the solitary situation of Aragonès in Parliament - leading a government that only had the support of the 33 Catalan Republican Left (ERC) deputies for a year and a half - Salvador Illa's parliamentarians have not hesitated to ally with Junts on several occasions to promote a right-wing narrative. In the chamber, these two parties managed to pass a law favouring high-speed home evictions, and they also closed the door to the universal basic income plan and regulation of short-term housing rentals.
These positionings by the Socialists have not been received well from the ranks of the Comuns. There have been numerous complaints from the alternative left space, since Salvador Illa took the helm, that this is "the most right-wing PSC" in history. In the meantime, Albiach's party has devoted itself to making its left-wing profile clear in the chamber, achieving some small victories, such as the prohibition of correbous (bull running in Catalan towns) and removing the statute of limitations from serious pederasty crimes. On the other hand, on some major issues they have had to swallow the doctrine imposed by the PSC and Junts, to the point of accepting Hard Rock, the airport expansion and the B-40 beltway in the 2023 budget in exchange of some progress in health, energy, housing and mobility. Of course, this year, the Comuns did not want to fall for the same practical joke again and preferred to let the budget and the ERC-led government fall - with the consequent calling of the current election - instead of passing a budget with the hated macro projects.
Campaign contradictions
This rejection of the country model proposed by Salvador Illa for Catalonia has been evident since the first weeks of the pre-campaign. Jéssica Albiach has chosen to distance herself from the PSC and contrast the Comuns project with that of the Socialists. "We have to decide if the Illa model goes forward, the model that means more planeloads of tourists, or if it is the Comuns model that advances, which is more and cheaper trains for ordinary people," said the Valencia-born candidate. An even more forceful message came from her party colleague, El Prat de Llobregat mayor Lluís Mijoler, who clearly showed the gap with the Socialists for their defence of the macro projects. "If we leave the PSC alone, we leave it with the lobbies who want to expand the airport, who want to build the B-40, who want to build the Hard Rock," argued the mayor. "If we leave the PSC alone, it will look to the right."
However, the Comuns are also aware of the reality: their desire to enter the Catalan government will inevitably lead to them reaching an understanding with the PSC. In the event that the pro-independence parties do not obtain an absolute majority on May 12th, Jéssica Albiach's party will want to move and enter into the same sort of political deal in Barcelona that their colleagues in Madrid have already done by storming into the Moncloa palace, hand in hand with Pedro Sánchez's PSOE. Only in this way will the Comuns be able to guarantee that their demands, especially in social spheres, are taken more seriously.
A tripartite, their only option to enter the Generalitat
In Catalonia, the parliamentary arithmetic necessary for a left-wing majority would force the construction of a complex three-way deal between the PSC, ERC and the Comuns. Albiach's party are sure to want to repeat the left-wing tripartite experience that brought Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla to the Generalitat after 2003 - no matter how much they avoid saying it out loud - having ruled out entering any government with Junts, and knowing that the far-left CUP will never make Salvador Illa president. Although the polls indicate that the Comuns are likely to lose some seats, the polls suggest that the parliamentary configuration resulting from May 12th should make the triple deal possible. On the other hand, if either Socialists or Republicans have other feasible scenarios when the votes are counted, they are unlikely to attempt the complex formula that includes the Comuns.
In a hypothetical tripartite, the relationship between the Comuns and ERC would be more managable because they share a greater understanding on economic and social priorities, and Jéssica Albiach readily recognizes that the Socialists will be the difficult ones to dominate. That is why the Comuns candidate has already set to work to attract Salvador Illa back to the left. "We want a progressive government", says the candidate during the campaign, intoning the same word overused in Madrid to refer to the coalition government between the PSOE and Sumar, where the relationship seems to work. "The Comuns are the guarantee that the PSC will side with the people and not the lobbies", affirm other voices in the party. Albiach has set to work to seduce Illa in readiness for the post-election scenario. Now it remains to be seen if it works.