The campaign reaches the halfway mark marked by Sánchez's reflection and with Illa first in polls

Aragonès and Puigdemont are fighting for second place and some polls give them a technical tie

   BARCELONA, 4 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Catalan electoral campaign reaches the midpoint marked by the decision of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to continue in office after reflecting on it for 5 days after the denunciation of Manos Médicas to his wife, and with the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa , leading the polls ahead of ERC and Junts.

In fact, Illa maintains the first position in all the polls published to date with a range of up to 40-47 seats, while the second position is disputed by the president of the Generalitat and ERC candidate, Pere Aragonès, and the Junts, Carles Puigdemont, who in some polls are in a technical tie.

Given the socialist's starting position, the rest of the candidates have put the focus of criticism on him, so Illa has appealed to the vote to have enough strength to govern alone.

Sánchez's letter in which he announced that he was entering a period of reflection shook the beginning of the campaign, since the president decided to cancel his agenda, which included the opening of the campaign in Sabadell and an event last Sunday in Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona).

However, the leader of the PSOE burst into the Catalan campaign this Thursday in Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona) "willing" to mobilize the vote for Illa, in a pavilion that was filled by 2,000 people, while another 1,000 followed the event outside of a big screen.

Aragonès has claimed that his Government has reversed the cuts and that Catalonia now literally has more teachers, more doctors and more police officers than ever, while pointing out his two main competitors, Illa and Puigdemont: "Salvador Illa's proposal is more Moncloa and more Spain. Carles Puigdemont's is Carles Puigdemont".

The third in dispute, former president Carles Puigdemont, has set the epicenter of his campaign in Argelès-sur-mer (France), less than 40 kilometers from the border, where he plans his return to be "reinstated" as president, to the time that he defends returning to understanding with the pro-independence forces to continue defending the independence of Catalonia.

The Vox candidate, Ignacio Garriga, who was supported by the leader of the formation, Santiago Abascal, at an event in Tarragona last Sunday, maintains that PSC, ERC and Junts are "the same", and blames them for the data from crime and the increase in insecurity and wasting public money with the independence process.

The number 1 of the CUP for Barcelona, ​​Laia Estrada, has focused her interventions on putting forward proposals to improve public services, and has repeatedly called on ERC, Junts and Comuns to reach agreements in the next legislature, while at the same time defends independence to "overcome the regime of '78."

The Comuns Sumar candidate, Jéssica Albiach, who has focused on Barcelona and its metropolitan area during the first half of the campaign, has committed to not agreeing with any right-wing force after 12M - excluding Junts, PP, Cs and Vox--, and has defended that their formation will be the guarantee that projects such as the Hard Rock, the expansion of the Airport and the B-40 will not be carried out.

For his part, Carlos Carrizosa (Cs) asks for the vote with the aim of his formation continuing to have representation in the Parliament: they establish themselves as a party that does not depend on Madrid and appeals to PSC voters who feel "betrayed" by the approval of the Amnesty Law.

Finally, the PP candidate, Alejandro Fernández, has started the campaign supported by different popular leaders such as Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Cuca Gamarra and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, and has advocated throwing Puigdemont and Sánchez "into the trash can of History."