The PSOE considers the wear and tear of the amnesty deactivated after the electoral success in Catalonia

The feeling is one of deep relief and that, now, the worst is over. “They have called us everything but we were right, it was worth it.” That is the general feeling expressed both publicly and privately by PSOE leaders and senior Government officials to define the desert journey undertaken since the promotion of the amnesty law until the Catalan elections of May 12. That Sunday, at the stroke of midnight, the victory of the PSC and, above all, the historic defeat of the independence movement made Pedro Sánchez’s political strategy regarding Catalonia finally make sense.

After many months of accusations about the harmful effects of the amnesty, the result has validated the Executive’s plans: the independence groups have less strength than ever in the Parliament after a decade of processes, the sovereigntist agenda is cornered by the lack of support in the polls and the territorial crisis derived from the referendum of October 1, the subsequent declaration of independence and the condemnation of the political leaders who supported it has been definitively overcome.

The message that emanates from all this, in the opinion of Moncloa, is that the risky policies developed in Catalonia have borne fruit and have really served to solve a problem of the first magnitude. And the Government is convinced that this reading will have much more impact on citizens from now on than the right-wing proclamations about the breakup of Spain or the surrender to the independence movement.

“People don’t want nonsense, they want their leaders to solve problems. And that is what we have done in Catalonia, there are the results,” defends a senior socialist official who uses numbers to compare the evolution of the independence vote under PP and PSOE governments. “They are a machine for creating independentists. Us, the opposite,” he says.

Ferraz admits that the pedagogy regarding the amnesty law has not been easy. An all-out offensive by the right and public opinion that is very critical of the grace measure, according to polls, have meant severe wear and tear for the socialists for much of the last year since the 23J general elections. But the president’s team maintains that the Catalan 12M completely changes the game.

“It is true that there have been many people critical or skeptical of the amnesty but today many of those people perceive that it had a justification, that it has been worth something. We come from a very deep bankruptcy and that has disappeared today due to the decisions that this Government has made,” says one of the people closest to the president in the Moncloa who also points to Genoa. “They want to continue with the amnesty noise when they have not even used it in Catalonia during the campaign because it has already been amortized, because people are into something else. Feijóo proves to be very lost,” she adds.

Although there are voices within the Executive that call for caution and ask not to extrapolate the behavior of the Catalan voter with that of other parts of Spain, the most widespread reading among socialists is that the wear and tear due to the amnesty has already peaked. And that its use as an electoral weapon by the PP will, therefore, already have a limited effect.

The PSOE thinks that to a large extent the revalidation of the polls last Sunday will lessen the echo of those who try to exacerbate political tensions between Catalonia and the rest of Spain in search of some electoral gain in other parts of the country. So the feelings facing the European elections on the verge of the campaign starting are very different from those of just a few weeks ago, when the Executive and the Socialist Party held their breath for the possible departure of Pedro Sánchez.

“The president’s decision and the results in Euskadi and Catalonia have changed the mood a lot. “People are very encouraged, very mobilized for what is to come,” says a PSOE minister who also defends that all this could be detrimental to the motivation for 9-J of a right wing that has been hypermobilized for years against Pedro Sánchez and the progressive coalition government.

The PP cools its expectations

In fact, that reasoning coincides with the mood on Genova Street. The PP faces the European elections with the conviction that they will win at the polls, but with doubts about what the impact of Pedro Sánchez’s temporary withdrawal will be to “reflect” on their continuity and the result in the Catalan elections on May 12 , which the PSC won.

If a few months ago the popular party flirted with the idea of ​​overtaking the German CDU and being the first party within the European PP group, under the leadership of Alberto Núñez Feijóo they are now content with “beating the PSOE.” In Genoa they assume that both socialists and the extreme right of Vox will not only endure their 2019 results, but may even improve. Those of Santiago Abascal because they start from limited achievements five years ago, before their definitive emergence in the general elections of November of that year. And the PSOE, according to what they say in the PP, because it will benefit from the fall of those with whom it shares a certain electorate: Sumar and Podemos.

The PP, which ignored the amnesty issue in the Catalans, will exploit it again ahead of June 9. The motto: that Pedro Sánchez will hand over the Generalitat to Carles Puigdemont. “The Sánchez doctrine is to put his personal interests above general interests, maintain instability in Catalonia and Spain and hide his pacts until after the European elections,” he said last Tuesday before the barons of the party of he. PP sources maintain that “sensitivity” with the amnesty “is different in Tarragona than in Segovia.”

In the party they trust that the June elections, at the state level, will allow Feijóo to score a victory and prove him right “about what is happening” in Spain. “All Spaniards have the opportunity to speak out on a negotiation that includes amnesty, the Government of Spain and the Government of Catalonia,” he said on Tuesday. “We have to make our voice heard loud, clear and clean. “We want and must send a message in Europe against Sánchez’s excesses,” he added.

Feijóo asked the regional presidents of the PP for a “maximum mobilization” in the territories. And the first test will be seen with the launch of the campaign. The PP has called a protest event against the amnesty for this Sunday, May 26, at the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid, to face the last stretch until reaching the polls with a show of force.

It will be a demonstration in the middle of the campaign and against Pedro Sánchez, on whom the European campaign will focus. “It is now or never,” said its director, Esteban González Pons, last Friday, during the presentation of the motto with which the PP faces the 9J.

“Your vote is the answer” is the chosen slogan, in reference to the letter that Sánchez published when he announced his five days of reflection on his continuity. “We want them to go to the polls and tell him what they think of him, to tell Europe what they think of the Spanish Government,” said Pons. A plebiscite that, if it does not go well for Feijóo, could cause some internal problems.