Pere Aragonès (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) holds the position of president of the Generalitat of Catalonia from 2021.
Yesterday, he placed his position in the political scene at risk a year earlier by deciding to call for early elections due to the impossibility of approving the regional budgets.
Ultimately, Salvador Illa, candidate of the Party of Socialists of Catalonia (PSC), clinched victory.
What were the two possible scenarios?
The PSC faced off head-to-head with Carles Puigdemont of Junts per Catalunya.
Now, the sector hopes that the winner will meet with the current ruler to continue with the sustainable mobility process that is currently being carried out.
“We observe a general synergy in which more sustainable vehicles must be implemented,” says Israel Vallejo , Head of the Electric Vehicles Department at Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), to Mobility Portal España.
How was this management?
Within the framework of the Moves Plan, the Community of Catalonia has been one of those that acquired the largest budget, accounting for more than 230 million euros.
The Catalan Institute of Energy (ICAEN) has received 41,000 requests , both for vehicle renewal and installation of charging points, with a combined amount of 204.71 million euros.
This has resulted in more than 57,000 electric cars and some 25,700 plug-in hybrids already circulating in the Autonomous Community.
In addition, when they began management in 2021, TMB had nine electric buses and 354 hybrids out of a total of 1,134.
Now, the company has 134 zero-emission vehicles and 421 low-emission vehicles, to which are added eight hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, out of 1,140.
Not only this, but the average age of public transport cars decreased from 8.48 years to 6.94.
Without a doubt, these data set a high bar for the new candidate who will assume the regional presidency.
However, the future outlook is not very encouraging if the scenarios proposed by the parties that lead in the polls are analyzed.
Although the socialists assure in the program that they will promote sustainable mobility with the development of a Strategic Plan, as well as the development of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, it is not a topic that Illa is heard addressing in her speeches.
Likewise, in its proposals, Junts+Carles Puigdemont per Catalunya details that it will promote electric mobility, focusing mainly on supporting the transition of large players already established in the sector.
In the case of the independence force, these projects do not come off “paper” either, since the eMobility transition is not mentioned in their allegations.
Now we will have to wait for the winning party to meet with the current Government to address this matter.
Of course, as Mobility Portal España learned, the parties in general did not give enough importance to sustainable mobility, since other issues such as security, taxes and amnesty are monopolizing the public debate.
Is this panorama surprising?
Quite the opposite. A déjà vu is being experienced in the Catalan Community.
In the previous elections for the Parliament of Catalonia, the PSC had also been the most voted force, but tied at 33 seats with the Republican Left of Catalonia and was one ahead of Junts per Catalunya.
Although Salvador Illa won the previous ones by votes, it was finally Pere Aragonès who became the president.
This is because ERC formed a coalition government with Junts, which had obtained a total of 32 deputies.
Not only this, but Aragonès was also elected by an absolute majority in his investiture session, thanks to the favorable votes of his own party, as well as the support of Junts and the deputies of the Popular Unity Candidacy.
The distinction in this case has been a more pronounced difference.
The latest polls before the elections showed the PSC in first place, with approximately 28 per cent of the votes, followed by Junts with 21 per cent and ERC with 17 per cent.
This indicates that the socialists would have around 40 seats, while the other two would have 34 and 26, respectively.
What will happen now with the victory of the PSC?
