The PSC participated in the last general elections with a majority of 19 votes, and then President Salvador Illa led the opposition, underscoring the importance of widening the distance between three votes with the PP (from 10 to 13). In legislatures thus modified, and defined by a single scene, Genoa assumed that the bill for Alberto Núñez Viejo’s arrival in Moncloa would inevitably lead to a better outcome in Catalonia. The national leadership has granted more powers to the leader of the Barcelona People’s Party, Dani Sereira, to strengthen the party’s structure in the Catalan capital. The rankings were released shortly before the publication of a Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) measure which suggested the far-right Catalan-Vox coalition would overtake the PP if elections were held today.
At the gates of a protest rally in Madrid to demand elections, Figo asked for more support for businessmen who pressured Junts to support a censure motion against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. “I miss the votes of my friends,” he admitted in a surprise complaint, admitting that the PP is weak in this aspect. Together he rejected the plan. In his speech, Figo also referred to the CEO who noted that the home is the main concern of the Catalans, in addition to mentioning his policies on security, immigration and taxes. The study predicts a slight decline in PP and that Pedro Sánchez leads him in preferences in Catalonia by 30 points.
Transformed to the 2024 election, with 15 representatives, in four strengths – behind PSC, Junts and ERC –, the poll ranks fifth with PP (with 12 or 13 scans and tied in the high margin with Vox, with 13 or 14) behind the far right. The November measure of the 40 dB poll for EL PAÍS and SER also reflects that Vox outperforms PP, distinguishing it from what is happening in the other six communities analyzed (Andalusia, Madrid, Valencia, Castilla León, Galicia and Vasco). With the support of only 3.4% of those consulted, Figo is the fourth preferred candidate for president after Sánchez (32%), Santiago Abascal (7%), and Yolanda Díaz (5%). Among People’s Party supporters, only 53% believe he will be the better candidate.
The exercise has led to a relativization of the survey result because it holds that historically worse results have always been attributed to PP compared to those actually obtained in the end. “You never remember that they voted for us,” says one party member who remembers that they never remembered that they were elected in the popular vote when José María Aznar won 12 deputies. According to her analysis, based on her studies, Aliança Catalana and Vox grew mainly along the coast of the Junts and the PSC, respectively, for reasons in this case related to migration in historically small municipalities. There is another positive reading: after serving three years in the past fifteen years and the current term, the People’s Party has succeeded in strengthening its position.
But despite his strength in the last generals, after only two seasons, Genoa knows that it is not enough and that he needs to increase his weight in Catalonia. The National Directorate renewed the Regional Directorates of Girona and Tarragona at the beginning of November and chose to modify the existing Directorate in Barcelona at the earliest opportunity. The party created a local council headed by Serrera, the former president of the People’s Party who, after Figo’s invitation, left Valencia in 2023 to run as a candidate in the municipal elections. A trustworthy man of the popular leader – whose political position he represented at the last congress of its formation – Serreira heads this body that worked under Enrique Lacalle and which has now been rescued to improve results in Barcelona. The committee includes many leaders and former leaders, including historical advisor Alberto Fernandez Diaz.
“We are making the party stronger so that it wins,” Serera said, referring to municipal and general governments. “Everyone has his own place to work, every boss has his own job, and his own scope of work.” In this sense, the leadership of the Barcelona District, in the hands of Manu Reyes, mayor of Castelldefels, is working to achieve as many lists as possible for 2027. All the moves are taking place while the party is in crisis: Alejandro Fernández is the president of the party and the parliamentary group and Genoa, despite its differences, has no intention of holding a congress to resolve a new leader because his goal is to hold general elections to frustrate Pedro Sánchez. In a party full of families, few would claim that there is now no better candidate for party president than Fernandez.