Montilla has announced that the elections will take place on November 28th (read article in Castilian here, La Vanguardia). José Montilla, president of the Generalitat de Catalunya announced yesterday that the elections are to be held on Sunday November 28th. "I call the people of Catalunya to exercise their democratic right on Sunday November 28th." The president warned that there was "much is at stake" in this election and asked the parties to "fair play and use clarity in the proposals." The announcement comes after a long wait and Montilla put special stress on what he saw as the historical moment that the elections will be, warning that the stakes even more "serious" in the context of the economic crisis in Catalunya and the "discredit suffered by the policy." He asked the Catalan citizens to "be aware of the extremely important moment in which we live" and solemnly summoned them to reflect and be aware that the road they decide to follow will "probably mark Catalunya for an entire generation." José Montilla finished his brief speech in Castilian after making the declaration in Catalan. The elections will come on month after the planned general strike, which is marked for September 29th and three week after Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Barcelona to enshrine the basilica of the Sagrada Familia. With this distance Montilla can ensure that any possible consequences suffered by the PSC thanks to the general election and to move further from the possibility that the strike could erode the party's popularity, in particularly in their traditional popular electoral areas, densely populated suburbs of the city, known as the 'cinturón rojo' (red belt). Montilla will also receive Benedict XVI, head of state and claims that his visit might mark or "coincide with the start of the campaign." Amongst the unknowns of the visit, if the price from the resulting from the security of the visit were to made public and Montilla was to approve of such spending then this might be a seen as a wink to the Catholic vote.