With the polls showing him the winner of the elections this Sunday, May 12, but without a sufficient majority to govern, the PSC candidate, Salvador Illa, continues without giving clues about the agreements he wants to reach to be invested as president of the Generalitat . But he has made it clear this Thursday that to achieve his objective he will not accept the support of Vox or Aliança Catalana in any case if, as the polls predict, Sílvia Orriols’ party enters the Parliament. “I will not accept those votes, I will not talk to them. I will not govern with active or passive support from Vox or Aliança Catalana,” Illa assured, in an interview on TV3.
The socialist leader has expressed satisfaction with the commitment signed this Wednesday by the PSC, ERC, Junts, Comuns and CUP under the motto “Unity against the extreme right” in which they undertake to “not legitimize” either Vox or Aliança Catalana , to reject in any case their votes to achieve majorities in the Parliament and prevent their initiatives from prospering.
“Language is important and also having clear positions and putting barriers to certain hate speech,” stressed Illa, who recalled that in the legislature that is now ending there has already been that commitment and it has worked, since Vox has had “a “very limited prominence” in the Parliament.
Regarding possible post-election agreements, he has simply shown himself open to dialogue. He has indicated that he takes the polls that give him a winner “with caution”, but “if what the polls say happens” he will speak with all the parties except “those that practice hate speech” and will run for the investiture to be president of the Generalitat. “Will they block or not? I have not blocked this mandate, I have built an alternative but every time the president of the Generalitat has called me I have met. We have been open to renewing positions in the institutions in which they had expired, open to approving Budgets. With the legitimacy of not having blocked, I will take a step forward,” he said. “I think we need a stable government, therefore I am open to reaching agreements,” he stressed.
He has also assured that, if he is president of the Generalitat, the dialogue tables with the Spanish Government will be maintained. “One of the mistakes has been to opt for a confrontational method. There has to be collaboration to achieve improvements,” he noted. In this sense, he has defended that the new financing system “has to be achieved through dialogue.” The dynamic of collaboration with dialogue “does not mean that there is no need to have ambition or there are no disagreements,” she pointed out.
Regarding the new financing for Catalonia, Illa has pointed out that the Catalan model “already has a differential element, which is the General Tax Consortium, which is in the Statute. “A joint consortium between the Catalan and Spanish estates that can collect all the taxes.” The PSC leader recalled that this model “has passed the Constitutional filter. It is a law, it has to be followed.” And he has expressed his conviction that he can improve the financing model for Catalonia if he is president. “In four years I see myself capable of resolving what they have not resolved in ten years,” he said, referring to the Junts and ERC governments.
The PSC candidate has also spoken out against the hostile takeover bid by BBVA to take control of Banc Sabadell “for a matter of competition, since an excessive concentration of the financial sector is not good for clients, also for a matter of social inclusion, since I want there to be in-person attention from financial entities throughout the territory, even in small municipalities, also for a matter of jobs, something that worries me, and for a matter of decision-making power in Catalonia . And finally because of what the Anglo-Saxons call “too big to fail”, banks so big that if one day something happens to them we all have to run to help them.”
