The Partido Popular (PP) is placing renewed weight on results in Catalonia's four provinces as it seeks to build a parliamentary majority at Spain's next general election, according to reporting by Regió 7 published on Sunday 20 September.

For voters in Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona, the calculation is that a stronger PP result could be significant to the national balance of seats. The party won the most votes nationally in the July 2023 general election but did not secure enough support in Congress to form a government.

The report says the PP leadership at Génova, the party's national headquarters in Madrid, regards the four Catalan provinces as electorally important. In the 2023 election, the Catalan Socialists' Party (PSC) won 19 seats, according to the report.

Past PP majorities included seats in all four provinces

Regió 7 cites the 2000 and 2011 general elections as examples of PP victories in which the party won representation in Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona.

  • In 2000, José María Aznar won an absolute majority, with the PP taking one seat in each of Lleida and Girona.
  • In 2011, Mariano Rajoy won an absolute majority and the PP secured 11 seats in Catalonia, including seats in Lleida and Girona.
  • In July 2023, the PSC won 19 Catalan seats, the report says.

Balancing relations with Vox and Junts

The report describes Vox as a significant factor in Catalonia, where competition on the right can affect the PP's result. It also points to the PP's relationship with Junts, the Catalan pro-independence party whose seven seats helped Pedro Sánchez secure re-election as prime minister in 2023.

Miguel Tellado, the PP's secretary-general at the time of an interview with El Periódico last year, said the PP had found common ground with Junts on economic matters.

“We have understood each other with Junts, which is a nationalist party but also a centre-right party with which we have found common ground on economic matters.”

The report also refers to Alberto Núñez Feijóo's relationship with Alejandro Fernández, the president of the PP of Catalonia (PPC). Fernández was re-elected as PPC president this year with 97% of the vote, according to the image caption accompanying the report.

It cites the 2023 Barcelona mayoral vote as an example of the national leadership's involvement in Catalan decisions. PP councillors supported the Socialist candidate Jaume Collboni, preventing Junts candidate Xavier Trias, who had won the most votes, from becoming mayor.

Reported by Regió 7.