There will be no pact between the PSC and Junts after the May 12 elections. This conclusion, evident even before the start of the electoral period due to the veto of the post-convergents, has been ratified by the socialist candidate, who slammed the door this Friday, hours after opening the door to said agreement. “With Junts there will be no pact. They exclude themselves (…) Puigdemont is a blockade,” Salvador Illa recriminated in a new edition of the Barcelona Tribuna forum.
Illa gave rise to a possible agreement with Junts after the Catalan elections even knowing that it is impossible and that the post-convergent candidate Carles Puigdemont would flatly reject such a possibility, as has been the case. But the intention of the socialist candidate was none other than to place the battle in a fight of two and generate a useful vote around himself, warning of the high possibilities that the arithmetic would turn out to be devilish after the elections, so that it would be impossible to form a government and everything. leads to a repeat election.
Illa is fighting in this campaign to concentrate as much as possible the vote of the left, but also of the center and the right, convinced that only in this way will he have the possibility of being invested with the support of the common people and of whom the majority of surveys place as third: CKD. The essential condition for this to happen is that the pro-independence parties do not gain an absolute majority, not even with the help of minority pro-independence groups, such as the CUP or the ultra-nationalist Aliança Catalana, for which Illa predicts greater parliamentary representation than expected.
Thus, the PSC candidate appeals to a “transversal” and “strong” government. He sees himself as the winner of the elections but, as he often says, “it is not about winning, but about governing,” and the risk of blockage remains. That is why Illa made an exercise in political realism this Friday, admitting that “with Junts there will be no pact” possible. “They exclude themselves because their logic is that of the lost decade,” while “mine is that of a strong government; two incompatible logics. They are betting on the blockade and I am for a strong government,” he justified.
Illa was presented at the colloquium organized by the Societat Econòmica Barcelonesa d’Amics del País, chaired by Miquel Roca, the AED (Spanish Association of Directors) and La Vanguardia, by the lawyer and father of the Constitution. Roca highlighted Illa’s “proximity, serenity” and her “ability to prioritize”, demonstrated, as he has confirmed, during his time as Minister of Health. For his part, Illa has shown his distance from the forms that the former president is using in this campaign, calling the PSC candidate a “civilian governor”, for example. “I refer to him as former president of the Generalitat, MEP and candidate”, a comment that drew applause from those in attendance.
He also does not see it possible for the PP to support him. “Yesterday – in the TVE debate – there were very explicit episodes. You can see what attitude they have, what they think about me and my political formation,” he alleged. Nor does he contemplate the possibility of being the one to support a possible pro-independence government. “Frankly not.” Not even if they ask him from Madrid, the moderator of the event Enric Sierra, deputy director of La Vanguardia, asked him: “They won’t ask me,” he assured. “The president of Catalonia makes his decision in Catalonia” and “linking this (the result of 12M with the governability of the State) seems to me to be a very un-Catalan approach,” he emphasized.
Illa has reaffirmed her willingness to run for office if she wins the elections, an attitude that she has contrasted with “blocking,” which “is a verb I hear a lot.” In this sense, the socialist has vindicated his willingness to propose, to extend his hand, despite the attitudes that he himself has suffered, such as the cordon sanitaire that the pro-independence parties placed against the PSC in the 2021 elections. And the fact is that “the “Politics is reaching agreements,” which is why “I appeal to a very transversal majority, to concentrate strength,” he stated.
Illa has praised the “transversal” aspect that she wants to give to the next Government. “I think as I think but I want to form a Government above parties,” she reiterated.
The PSC candidate has also presented his proposal to reform the Catalan public administration, a reform that he intends to be “comprehensive,” he said. This is a reform that Illa intends to agree with social agents and that is based on a strategic plan for governance, public innovation and digital transformation.
Among the specific measures of this plan, the PSC includes actions to attract and retain talent; provide the administration with better tools (public procurement, technology…); undertake regulatory simplification, protect the right to be served, establish clear communication, reinforce the professionalization of public management, give prestige to the public sector and design a one-stop shop for citizen services.
Illa has also spoken out on business issues. In particular, about the possibility of companies that left Catalonia as a result of the process returning. The leader of the PSC has opted for “generating stability and certainty, and of course not threatening”, as the best recipe to favor the interests of the business community, and has said not to rule out promoting some incentive for companies that left to decide to return, “but I think the main incentive is stability,” he insisted.
