PSOE denounces the Catalan Civil Society as a "political ghost" and accuses PP and Vox of fomenting hatred and "setting the streets on fire"

He assures that the call on Sunday in Barcelona against the amnesty was a "failure"

MADRID, 15 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PSOE considers the Catalan Civil Society (SCC) as a "political ghost." He also accuses PP and Vox of taking advantage of the demonstration called by this organization in Barcelona last Sunday to generate "hatred" and "set the streets on fire."

This is stated in an article in the publication 'El Socialista', edited by the leadership of the PSOE and titled 'The failure of the manifestation of hatred and tension in Catalonia', which has been collected by Europa Press.

In the text they accuse PP and Vox of "setting the streets on fire" and "creating confrontation" for participating in the Barcelona demonstration that brought together 50,000 people according to the Urban Guard and 300,000 according to figures provided by the organizers.

For the PSOE, furthermore, the result of the demonstration was a "failure" because they were not able to attract a "significant" amount of people and it was a demonstration of the failure of "the tension" in politics.

Thus, they consider that it remained "a mere anecdote" if compared, for example, with the march in favor of public health in Madrid, as they indicate. The socialists affirm that that day, last February 12, 600,000 people took to the streets to protest against the management of the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, although the Government Delegation stated that there were 250,000.

"The protest in Barcelona had been called by an entity that at this time is almost a political ghost, Societat Civil Catalana. And PP and VOX saw their perfect opportunity to foment hatred," they emphasize.

In the past, Catalan socialists did attend demonstrations called by SCC. In fact, prominent PSC leaders attended the largest of all, held on October 7, 2017, just a few days after the unilateral declaration of independence decreed for a few moments by the then president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont.

That day, important socialist leaders were on the front line along with the leadership of the PP and Ciudadanos, parties that made up the so-called constitutionalist bloc, against the acts of the independence movement. This is the case of Pedro Sánchez's former minister and current High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.

Before hundreds of thousands of people, including other socialist leaders such as the current leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa and former minister Celestino Corbacho, Borrell affirmed that Catalonia is not a colony or a militarily occupied territory and asked Puigdemont not to push the country towards the precipice

More recently, in October 2019, the PSOE also sent several of its most important officials to the demonstration called by the Catalan Civil Society. On that occasion, Borrell, acting Foreign Minister at that time, the Minister of Development and Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, José Luis Ábalos, and the first secretary of the PSC, Miquel Iceta, today Minister of Culture, also attended.

The socialist leaders once again marched alongside political leaders from the PP, Ciudadanos and also Vox. At that time, there was a month left until the November 2019 general elections were held again, which the PSOE won and began Sánchez's first full term in La Moncloa.

Today the situation is different, the PSOE has distanced itself from SCC while getting closer to the independence movement throughout the last legislature. Sánchez granted pardons to the independence leaders convicted by the process, eliminated the crime of sedition and reduced the crime of embezzlement and is now immersed in a negotiation with Junts to grant the amnesty.