what do PP, Vox and Cs voters choose?

2023-05-10 14:00:47

BarcelonaThe Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) defines the term cliche as a “trivial expression used systematically in the same sense”. In football, the creation of clichés has been a recurring trend among the different fans, especially when referring – with a mocking tone or simply to degrade their prestige – to entities with which they maintain a fierce rivalry. The Barcelona derby par excellence is no exception. Many of the phrases that Barça and Espanyol fans will say this week are likely to be inaccurate or, frankly, false stories. That’s why it’s always good to look at the data.

The public positioning of the two clubs following the Process uncovered the other Pandora’s box. While the Periquita organization asked its supporters not to use the organization or the stadium politically, the Blaugrana tried to become a spokesperson for supporters of the right to decide. But are Espanyol’s fans really more right-wing than Barça’s?

At the outset, it should be pointed out that there is not a sufficiently representative study that reliably answers this question. The only survey published on this topic, with a sample of just over a thousand people, is the Political Opinion Barometer of the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO), which inquired about party sympathy and vote intention and crossed it with the team the respondents followed. The answers to the two surveys carried out so far, from 2017 and 2023, show that the fans of Barça and Espanyol move in a similar ideological framework. With some variations, yes.

Which team are the voters of each party

According to voting intention in Parliament, among football fans

Which party are the supporters of each team

According to voting intention in Parliament, in percentage

Similar weight on the left axis

In percentage terms, the survey last April indicates that 54.7% of Blaugrana supporters are on the left wing (ERC, En Comú Podem, CUP and PSC), while in the case of the ‘Spanish the percentage is 47.5%. According to the 2017 survey, the combined weight of Junts pel Sí (where there was CDC and ERC), PSC, CUP and Catalunya Sí que es Pot (formerly En Comú Podem) in the two parties was almost identical: a 65 .4% support among Barça supporters compared to 63.1% among Espanyol supporters.

The weight of the right is percentage-wise higher among white-and-blue supporters, with a 15% intention to vote for Ciutadans, PP and Vox. In the case of Barça, the percentage is reduced to 6.1%. In the 2017 survey, respondents were asked if they wanted Catalonia to become an independent state. 60.8% of the Blaugrana fans answered “yes”, for 42.1% of the white-and-blues. “No” was the option chosen by 52.6% of respondents who declared themselves supporters of Espanyol and by 33.7% of Barça supporters.

However, all the data mentioned so far were percentages. And what happens if we take into account the absolute data? That Barça is the favorite football team for 75.4% of Catalans who feel sympathy for a football team in 2023 (77.5% in 2017), compared to only 3.1% in the case of ‘Espanyol (3.6% in the 2017 survey), shows that, in total figures, the majority of voters in all parties are supporters of the Barcelona club. Yes, Barça is the favorite team of 91.9% of Junts per Catalunya voters and 85.2% of CUP supporters, but it is also the favorite team of voters from right-wing parties: Vox (56, 5%), PP (48.8%) and Cs (40%). Espanyol is the club preferred by 10% of Cs voters, 4.3% of Vox voters and 2.4% of popular voters. The 2017 survey reflects very similar results.