February 14 is the day of the elections for the Generalitat of Catalonia. Although it has been uncertain whether the elections would take place on this day, the first TV debate will take place on Thursday evening. Spanish media already think they know which parties will win.
Uncertainty
Due to the high contamination numbers in Spain, it was uncertain for a long time whether the elections for the new Catalan Generalitat could take place next Sunday. Now that the election has been confirmed, the big TV debate is also planned. On Thursday evening at 9:25 pm, the Spanish TV channel La Sexta will broadcast a special election program. And around 10 pm the debate will commence.
Nine parties of Catalonia present at TV debate
The leaders of all nine parties will be present this evening and will make their points of view clear under the guidance of presenter Ana Pastor. The party leaders will speak in the following order:
- Ignacio Garriga (Vox)
- Pere Aragonès (ERC)
- Alejandro Fernández (PP)
- Laura Borràs (JxCat)
- Carlos Carrizosa (Ciudadanos)
- Salvador Illa (PSC)
- Àngels Chacón ( PdeCat)
- Laia Estrada (CUP)
- Jéssica Albiach (En Comú Podem).
In 2017, La Sexta also broadcast a TV debate. The seven candidates who put themselves forward then for The Generalitat drew more than 2.5million viewers. This year´s TV debate will be recorded in the Utopia space in Barcelona. All polls and analysis leading up to February 14th will also be reported around the actual debate.
Who will win the Catalan elections?
While the TV debate may change the minds of some floating voters, Catalan and Spanish media are already speculating about the election results. For example, the latest analysis by the Spanish newspaper El País shows that three parties could receive almost the same number of votes.
The PSC look set to receive about 22% of the vote, some 20-21% of Catalans will vote for Junts per Catalunya and 20% of the vote will most likely go to the ERC. The latest polls show fewer votes for the Partido Popular and Ciudadanos. According to the polls, Vox and CUP come out slightly better. View the statistics of the latest poll of polls here.
