Election is opportunity to end ‘40 years of nationalism’ in Catalonia, says PP official
Fernando Sánchez dismisses Socialists’ reluctance to govern with right-wing parties as ‘issues from the past’
The December 21 election is a “historic” opportunity to “put aside the nationalist government that has been ruling in Catalonia for the past 40 years,” said Fernando Sánchez, a member of the Catalan branch of Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP). In an interview with Catalan News, Sánchez stressed the importance of unionist parties coming together in order to form an alternative to pro-independence forces.
Sánchez — an MP until the Spanish government triggered Article 155 to dissolve the Parliament and call a snap election — said that “nationalism has ruled over Catalonia and controlled almost everything.” He hopes that the PP, along with Ciutadans and the Socialists, will “build another government that works for all people, for all Catalans, regardless of their ideology.”
Last week was punctuated by seemingly contradictory messages from Socialist officials: while the leader of the party in Spain said they would not govern alongside right-wing parties — referring to the PP and Ciutadans — the Socialist candidate in the Catalan election, Miquel Iceta, said that he would be willing to “give in” and form a government that pursues “reconciliation”.