Salvador Illa says he has the frank intention of helping the Government of Pere Aragonès to approve the next budgets of the Generalitat, those of 2024, to “help”, as he says, so that “things go well in the country”, for That is why his tone is practically free from criticism of the Catalan Executive despite the rain of reality represented by crises such as the drought, the educational results indicated by the Pisa report, or the pressing lack of investment in infrastructure that he has been denouncing. For this reason, instead of dwelling on the problems, the leader of the PSC wanted to place the axes of what will be his conditions for the negotiation of the next accounts: education, housing and security.
In the institutional interview with the head of the opposition on TV3 from the Parliament of Catalonia, the Catalan socialist leader has indicated that the axes of his demands to negotiate the next budgets, whenever negotiations are finally opened, are education, housing and security. “If you want to have our support, which I am willing to do,” the PSC will demand an increase in educational investment, among other measures; collaboration with city councils in the field of housing and security issues.
Illa’s announcement comes just the day that the Government has agreed to the budget extension of the 2023 accounts, a technical mechanism as a consequence of the impossibility of having new budgets approved on January 1, 2024, and despite the fact that the Government has not complied with the main conditions that the PSC set to approve last year’s accounts (Hard Rock, El Prat airport and B-40).
Illa emphasized these non-compliances, warning that the head of the Government is risking his credibility on it, but aware that more or less immediate regional elections are beyond his control because they are an exclusive competence of the president, the PSC leader showed his priorities to reissue the entente starting in January.
In the field of education, Illa has pointed out the need to increase investment to approach the 6% of GDP recommended by UNESCO, as well as to see “what comes out” of the commission recently agreed upon between the Government and the parliamentary groups this Tuesday to reverse the results of Pisa in Catalonia. In this area, the socialist insists on listening to and addressing the demands of the directors of educational centers.
In the area of ??housing, Illa pointed out the need to initiate “comprehensive actions in the neighborhoods, in collaboration with city councils”, and in security he focused on the Mossos d’Esquadra. In this regard, he pointed out that this Wednesday a meeting will take place between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of the Interior to reinforce (financially) the police force. This meeting “is the result of collaboration. We are talking about the deployment of the Mossos,” but also “we have to reinforce the courts,” he said.
The head of the opposition showed a constructive attitude at all times and assured that at this time, if he were president, he would dedicate all his efforts to reversing the situation of education and the drought. Criticism was only glimpsed when he concluded that “the Government is not up to the task”, suffers from “parliamentary weakness at a very complex time”, is “even a little reckless”, but left the decision on the matter in the hands of the president. When will the elections be held? Meanwhile, “if anyone thinks that things related to Catalonia can be done without the PSC, they are wrong,” he warned.
Illa also opted for an “improvement of self-government”, rejected “singular” financing for Catalonia, as the Government intends, as well as attending the table on the clarity agreement “if it is to talk exclusively” about the referendum – which he also denigrated – and He reaffirmed his commitment to the Government’s reunion agenda, which has included pardons, the reform of the Penal Code and, now, the amnesty law.
The leader of the PSC refuted that this last measure is going to entail an electoral cost for his party, although there are those who do not see it with enthusiasm. “It may take a while (to prove its benefits), but there are issues that have to be asked, which fall into the chapter of State issues,” he justified. In fact, he alleged that “an effort is being made to be generous, not to forget but to forgive” with measures such as the amnesty, because “Catalonia has to seek unity.”
In this sense, he commented on the fact that President Sánchez has confirmed that he will meet in the coming months with the leader of Junts, Carles Puigdemont, and that of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, meetings that took place in the most absolute normality. But he understood everything when he pointed out, with some sarcasm, that it seems “very good and that there is so much interest” in meeting with Pedro Sánchez. “It seems right to me.”
