They emphasize in the PSC that their candidate for the 12-M elections, Salvador Illa, is a man of order, and not only because he has a prudent and moderate character, not a fan of outbursts or stridencies, but because he When it comes to undertaking his goals he also likes to be methodical, follow an order. In this pre-campaign he is being faithful to his style and, before entering the maelstrom of the campaign itself, he has decided to begin by accentuating the social democratic nature of his proposal, with a series of meetings and actions that aim to make the progressive profile of the PSC compared to direct rivals, such as Junts per Catalunya, or ERC, which has focused these first days on highlighting its pro-independence profile.
Illa has held meetings with different social agents in the last week before launching his proposal to “unite and serve” the Catalans if he reaches the Government of the Generalitat at a conference that will take place this Thursday in Barcelona. The socialist candidate first met with third sector entities and companies, on Thursday of last week, with whom he launched a joint statement in which they are committed to “political stability” to promote “social policies.” This week he met with the national secretary of the UGT of Catalonia, Camil Ros, and today he will do so with the CC.OO.
In between, Illa visited the leaders of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), just after the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, launched his proposal to create a specific department for Catalan if he returns to preside over the Government. The PSC candidate went to see those responsible for the “academic reference for Catalan language and culture” to show that, despite not sharing the president’s idea, Illa takes seriously a core issue of Catalanism, and that The IEC is, and must continue to be, in his opinion, the reference of the new Catalan Executive in this matter.
Throughout the legislature, the leader of the PSC has maintained regular contact with social agents, as well as with employers’ associations. But for now, his candidacy has focused on the former. In the work meeting with UGT, Ros and Illa agreed to regret the abrupt end of the legislature as a result of the failure of the budgets. In any case, the union representative opted for the Catalan elections to help the new Government once and for all to reverse the cuts in public services that have been dragging on since the financial crisis. “Not only must we recover the level prior to the cuts, but we must recover more than ten years of public disinvestment,” warned Ros along with Illa.
For his part, the socialist candidate strengthened his commitment to the well-being and progress of all workers after a decade of ERC and Junts governments that “have not prioritized public services or the resolution of real problems of citizens.” As he has been pointing out these days, he underpinned his objective of promoting the “third great transformation” of Catalonia, in which public services will be placed at the center, and promised to resolve the financing of Catalonia: “I will not talk so much and I will work more.”
After this work meeting, Illa visited the Unió de Pagesos, with whom she also shared the sharp debate about the drought in Catalonia. The Catalan countryside was the protagonist at the end of the legislature as a consequence, in large part, of the restrictions implemented by the Government in this area and in the meeting with Illa, the agrarian union, the need to declare those proposed by the Confederation as emergency works. Hydrographic of the Ebro to provide the irrigation system of the Baix Priorat.
This Wednesday, Illa meets with the general secretary of CC.OO. of Catalonia, Javier Pacheco, but first, the PSC has issued a joint statement with third sector agents in which they demonstrate clear political complicity. In the note with the seal of the Taula of the Third Sector and the Business Confederation of the Third Social Sector, they regret the negative consequences of the non-approval of the 2024 budget, as well as the electoral advance, which stops the approval of the third sector law social, and agree on the need for Catalonia to have “political stability that allows legislatures to be exhausted and to apply a government program that places the generation of prosperity and social policies at the center.”
“The three parties consider that Catalonia needs a turning point in its commitment to the third social sector as an agent of social change, and for this to be the true third pillar of the welfare state, along with Health and Education,” they emphasize.
