The president of the Popular Party of Catalonia and the party's candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat, Alejandro Fernández, participated in a colloquium at the Círculo Ecuestre on April 30. After the welcome from the president of the Círculo Ecuestre, Enrique Lacalle, the president of the PP in Catalonia held a dialogue with the journalist and lawyer, Ricardo Fernández Deu.
Following the current news, the moderator of the event wanted to start the event by knowing the opinion of the candidate for the Government of the Generalitat regarding the non-resignation of Pedro Sánchez. Alejandro Fernández harshly criticized him and assured that “Some type of regeneration will be necessary, but not that of Pedro Sánchez”. “The regeneration of Pedro Sánchez consists of the fact that democracy has to change so that no one can accuse him and his wife”, he argued. Likewise, he opined that “true regeneration should be aimed at correcting some of the vices of partitocracy that developed for 30 years have caused a decrease in quality, not only of the curriculum, but also of the quality of political discourse and political action”.
During the conversation, Alejandro Fernández also wanted to assess the management that the President of the Government has carried out during his term: “It is curious that Sánchez, in addition to having extended the process to the whole of Spain, modifying the embezzlement, withdrawing the CNI from Catalonia , trying to remove the national police, etc. He has even blended in with Puigdemont when it seemed like they were going to retire and, unfortunately, that was not the case”. The president of the PP in Catalonia added that “Yesterday's speech equates Sánchez with Puigdemont because it says that a democracy where a complaint against his wife has been admitted for processing is not a democracy since only he can decide that. He has also denounced making fake news to the media that speaks badly of them and has assured that he is going to initiate measures". Despite this, Alejandro Fernández said that "Sánchez's situation has backfired" since "Spanish society is mature enough not to swallow that type of toad". “Catalonia and Spain cannot endure another decade of populism,” he concluded.
Regarding his relationship with the Popular Party at the national level, Alejandro Fernández explained the following: “I think that Feijóo's presidency has contributed a lot to the Popular Party of Catalonia being in a much better situation than a few years ago”. Along these lines, he alleged that "the fact that the PP in Catalonia is seen to have its own personality makes us be in a different situation than a few years ago when we were invited to join Manuel Valls' project". Finally, he declared that he felt “proud to belong to a party in which one can disagree”.
Regarding his relationship with Salvador Illa, he assured that there is “an essential discrepancy about what needs to be done in Catalonia” since the PSC candidate “has a particularly dangerous thesis related to goodism: he maintains that to end the process there is we have to transact with it, but the more we transact, the worse the educational system will be, there will be more illegal occupations, more taxes from the Generalitat, water management will be more Third World and there will be more insecurity in the cities". “Illa should break with Sánchez and Puigdemont, but he lacks the political character”. “If he wins he will end up subject to a separatist president”, he said. Given this definition, Fernández was against a possible government pact: "I am not going to hand over the votes of Catalans who vote for the PP so that Illa can make an agreement with the separatists".
As the final event of the colloquium, the moderator wanted to know the politician's opinion on two current issues: the drought in Catalonia and immigration. Regarding the first question, Fernández called for “following a plan with specific water extractions that could solve the problem in eight months” and said that “the current situation, typical of the Middle Ages, is a real shame”, which he blamed on “incompetent politicians”.
Regarding immigration in Catalonia, the Popular Party candidate advocated carrying out the following: “anyone who comes with a work contract and complies with the laws, welcome; Whoever commits crimes and becomes a repeat offender, out".
To conclude his speech, Alejandro Fernández demanded to disassociate negative labels from conservative thinking and to wear it with pride. He also valued the result of the electoral polls positively, but pointed out the importance of not relaxing in the face of the imminent elections: “We must work, not give up and make the Popular Party's rise a reality by convincing the greatest number of people”.