Salvador Illa, PSC candidate for the Parliament elections, promised yesterday to “recover” the industry and ensure that it represents 25% of the Catalan GDP if he is elected president on May 12. He announced it at an event in Sant Joan Despí, which he himself pointed out as the first of the pre-campaign, in which he assured that he will promote a “third great transformation” in Catalonia and demanded a change of stage after “a lost decade” with presidents of Together and ERC.
The leader of the Catalan socialists affirmed that he will lead the “third transformation” in Catalonia, behind the recovery of self-government and the “social transformation” that, according to him, former presidents Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla promoted. Illa stressed that while in 2000 the industry accounted for 25% of the GDP in Catalonia, “now it represents 20%,” and he committed to reaching that figure again. “We will do this again,” he said, and maintained that the change also involves the “recovery of public services.”
The socialist framed the transformation he defends in the need for a “change of stage” after a “lost decade” in Catalonia with four governments of Junts and ERC, those of Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont, Quim Torra and the current one of Pere Aragonès, with whom he was very critical and held responsible for the lack of investments in education, health, infrastructure, industry and housing. Five weeks before the elections, he was “optimistic”, but “without taking anything for granted”, although he stated that he perceives that “the Catalans want to open a new stage”.
