The first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has begun the internal process to renew his mandate at the head of the party, a process that will lead to an ordinary congress to be held from March 15 to 17 in which the new leader of the Catalan socialists and next candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia. Illa, determined to repeat his position, has issued a video addressed to the militancy in which he demands the necessary endorsements to be officially proclaimed candidate for the first secretariat of the PSC.
In the video, the leader says he feels “in shape” and with the intention of retaking the position, which he officially accepted in the last extraordinary congress held in December 2021, after winning the Catalan elections on February 14 of that year but not to be able to access the presidency of the Generalitat as a consequence of the government agreement between ERC and Junts.
Illa took over the first secretary of the PSC a year after being elected in primaries to be the electoral candidate in those elections, after passing to the side of the then leader of the party, Miquel Iceta, who resigned from being the electoral candidate with the contest. of the general secretary of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez.
Although there is still no date for the next Catalan elections, the socialist machinery was launched a month ago with the announcement of the holding of the ordinary congress in March. For now, the party has prepared a framework presentation, a roadmap with Illa’s seal focused on management, on “things to eat”, they say, with which they want to bury the “inaction” of the successive pro-independence governments during the stage of the process, which has “dragged by fatalism” a Generalitat “without direction and without a helmsman,” they diagnose.
Last Wednesday, the party informed the militancy that it was opening the primary procedure for the proclamation of the candidates. Activists who want to present themselves must communicate it in writing to the electoral authority between January 15 and 17. To do this, they must attach a document with the proposed political and organizational lines, the structure of the executive committee and the amendments, if any, to the party’s statutes. In addition, each candidate must present at least 150 endorsements from militants and on January 19 the official proclamation of the candidates will be made.
Party sources assure that at the moment no one has done so in addition to competing with Illa, who shows undisputed leadership in the party and there are no known critical voices. The results of the latest electoral events contribute to the absence of internal contestation, where the PSC has successively emerged as the winner. He won the 14-F by a narrow margin of 5,000 votes, he also won the municipal elections of May 28, 2023 with 710,000 votes, and swept the general elections with 19 seats.
In the video released by Illa this Friday, the PSC leader says he feels “in shape” and faces the challenge of renewing the position “with great enthusiasm”, and highlights the good electoral results achieved. Furthermore, he assures that he is presenting himself in the primaries “with an orderly, open, prepared party that knows how to govern Catalonia.”
Illa takes the opportunity to launch his political proposal, based on achieving for Catalonia “a good Government, which once again puts Catalonia at the head of Spain and with a decisive position in Europe.” A plan that contrasts with the 10 years of the independence process, after which Catalonia is not prepared to face a drought and the Government is not capable of making decisions about infrastructure: “Enough of this,” he exclaims.
