There will be no pact between the PSC and Junts after the May 12 elections. The conclusion, evident even before the beginning of the electoral period due to the veto set by the post-convergents, was ratified by yesterday’s knock on the door of the socialist candidate, 24 hours after opening it. “With Junts there will be no pact. It’s obvious. They self-exclude themselves (…). Puigdemont is the block”, vilified Salvador Illa in a new edition of the Barcelona Tribuna forum.
Illa had probed a possible agreement with Junts to overcome his investiture even knowing that it is impossible and that the post-convergence candidate, Carles Puigdemont, would reject it outright, as it was. The intention of the socialist aspirant was to reduce the electoral battle to a fight between two and reinforce around him the image of a useful vote in the face of the deadlock, which could result in an electoral repeat as the result of demonic arithmetic.
The socialist candidate fights in the campaign to concentrate the vote as much as possible, both from the left and from the centre-right, independenceist or not, convinced that this way he will have a chance of being invested. For this reason, the PSC expects to count on the contest of the commons and perhaps of ERC, which most polls place as the third force.
His appeal for a “transversal” and “strong” government goes along these lines, but the essential condition for this to happen is that the pro-independence parties do not gain an absolute majority, not even with the participation of minority pro-independence groups, such as the CUP or the ultra-nationalist Aliança Catalana, to whom Illa predicts more representation than expected.
The leader of the PSC sees himself as the winner of the elections but, as he usually says, “it’s not about winning, it’s about governing”, and the risk of a deadlock remains. That is why yesterday he did an exercise in political realism, admitting that “with Junts there will be no pact” possible. “They self-exclude themselves because their logic is that of the lost decade”, while “mine is that of a strong government; two incompatible logics. They are betting on the blockade and I am on a strong government”, he alleged.
Illa was presented at the colloquium, organized by the Barcelonesa Economic Society of Friends, chaired by Miquel Roca, the AED (Spanish Association of Managers) and La, by the lawyer ipare of the Constitution. Roca highlighted Illa’s “closeness, serenity” and “ability to prioritize”, demonstrated, he said, at the head of the Ministry of Health.
For his part, the candidate made an allegation about the value of forms in politics and showed his distance from those used by Puigdemont in this campaign, when he called the PSC candidate a “civilian governor”. for example. “I am referring to him as former president of the Generalitat, MEP and candidate”, he replied, a comment that drew applause from those present.
Illa also does not see it possible that the PP will support him to be president. “You can already see what attitude they have, what they think of me and my political background”, he acknowledged. Nor will he be the one to support another possible pro-independence government. “Frankly, no”. And not even if they asked him from Madrid: “It’s just that they won’t ask me”, he assured. “The president of Catalonia decides in Catalonia” and “linking this [the result of 12-M with the governability of the State] seems to me to be a very un-Catalanist approach”, he opined.
The candidate reaffirmed his desire to present himself at the investiture in case he is the winner, an attitude he contrasted with that of “blocking”, which “is a verb I feel a lot”, he regretted. Recalling the sanitary cordon that the pro-independence parties put on the PSC in the 2021 elections, Illa pointed out that “politics is about reaching agreements”, and for this reason “I appeal to a very transversal majority, to concentrate the force”, he to claim.
The aspirant also presented his proposal for the “comprehensive” reform of the Catalan public administration, an “indispensable” reform due to the current “inefficiency”, which he aims to agree with the social agents and which obeys a plan with three principles : governance, innovation and digital transformation.
Among the specific measures of the plan, the PSC includes actions to attract and retain talent, provide the administration with better tools (public procurement, technology…), propose regulatory simplification, shield the right to be served, establish a clear communication, strengthen the professionalization of the management, give prestige to the public sector and design a single window for public attention.
Illa also spoke on business matters. The leader of the PSC bet to “generate stability and certainty” to avoid relocation or the flight of companies, “and of course not to threaten”, he added. And although he said that he does not rule out the implementation of some incentive so that the companies that left because of the process decide to return, he insisted that “the main incentive is stability”.
