Half a year with Salvador Illa in the Government: what does the PSC do and what does it fail to do?

BarcelonaSalvador Illa's government is six months old. Since all the ministers took office on August 12 last year, the socialist executive has been active in order to start fulfilling the agreements with ERC and Comuns that allowed Salvador Illa to reach the Palau de la Generalitat. He wanted to take steps in matters committed to ERC in the summer, although they are still pending to become a reality, such as individual financing, but also to unblock PSOE debts such as the transfer of Cercanías (which is behind schedule) or the forgiveness of the FLA worth 15,000 million. The goal that Salvador Illa has set is to complete 45% of the investiture commitments during 2025. With the month of February upon us and without new budgets, the socialists hope to give a good push at the end of February with the bilateral commissions with the State and the fiscal and financial policy council. With the Comuns they have unblocked a first agreement with the approval of the sanctioning regime of the housing law to fine landlords who breach rent limits and commit fraud with seasonal contracts. But is this enough for the investiture partners?

Esquerra continues to insist that if the socialists want their votes, both in the Parliament and in Congress, they must see more progress. In Catalonia, the Republican party saved the technical decree that accompanies the budget extension, but it has left up in the air the approval of the decree on credit supplement that the Government is preparing to inject up to 4,000 million additional to the accounts for 2023, the current ones. The negotiation, point out several sources consulted by the ARA, is green at the moment. In parallel, ERC is also putting pressure on the Spanish government, which has its own Stations of the Cross with Juntos. "If there is no fiscal sovereignty, Sánchez will not have a budget," warned the general secretary of ERC, Elisenda Alamany. The singular financing is the main pact for which Esquerra voted in favor of Salvador Illa president, but the document, 25 pages long, contains points that, half a year later, have not been fulfilled. The complaint of the Republicans is that the Government is dragging its feet: "They are late and badly," lament Republican sources.

From the start, ERC and the PSC committed to create a national convention for the resolution of the political conflict, a proposal that recalls the table of parties that the socialists demanded (unsuccessfully) when Salvador Illa was leader of the opposition. The body, which must be presided over by ERC, was to present its conclusions in the Parliament, but it has not even been constituted. The commitment was to activate it in the first ordinary plenary session of the legislature. However, it was postponed even before the internal war broke out in Calabria: the parliamentary group of the Republicans advocated finding a formula that would allow them to add the CUP and Junts, while the socialists preferred that their partners configure this space to their liking.

Apart from addressing the political conflict, the convention also had to monitor the amnesty law and the Government had to support it by creating an office to guarantee it "human, technical and material resources" to carry out its tasks. The second period of parliamentary sessions has already begun and there is still no sign. From the Government they limit themselves to pointing out that they will comply with this agreement and the rest. Sources from the PSC clarify that they will speak with ERC once the commission for monitoring the pacts is constituted with all the legal requirements, also pending. And they take for granted that this will not happen until Oriol Junqueras's party completes the internal process of the party on March 15 and 16, although they assure that they maintain "constant" and fluid contacts with the new leadership of ERC.

Catalan and foreign action

The promotion of Catalan was also the focus of the investiture agreement: however, the National Pact for the Language is still without a date, although the agreement is well advanced, according to sources consulted. The agreement established that it should be carried out during the first 100 days of the new Government, a new deadline that has not been met. The office that was to be attached to the Catalan Sports Council to promote Catalan sports teams, endowed with 100,000 euros, has not yet been created either, and sources from the ministry do not clarify whether, with the extended accounts, they could go ahead or not. However, the Minister of Sports, Berni Álvarez, already warned a few weeks ago that The executive will not move to promote the Catalan football team, something that ERC sees as a "resignation". The Republicans also turn up their noses at the Brussels plan for foreign action of the Government, which they regret avoids "denouncing" the violations of rights in Catalonia before the European institutions. One of the points of the pact was to maintain and expand the network of delegations abroad. The executive has kept it, but has not extended it.It is not even moving to do so at the moment.

The Commons are going step by step

The attitude of the Comuns towards Isla's government is different from that of ERC: within the space there is consensus that the investiture agreement was a good pact because it made the PSC move on key issues, such as the tax privilege of the Hard Rock - already definitively overturned - or the maintenance of the bonuses in public transport for 2025. party. After the housing sanctioning regime, the next items to be negotiated are the deployment of the body of inspectors that must apply it, the unit against evictions and the neighbourhood law - with a first call in the summer with an allocation pending to be specified. Party sources explain that they will also insist on the increase in the tourist tax - which was left hanging in the negotiation of the budgets - and on guaranteeing attention to the family doctor in 48 hours, a milestone that they have been trying for years to get the government in power to meet (before, they signed it with the Aragonès executive). As regards the educational field, they will push to guarantee the dining grants and the promotion of vocational training.

However, the Comuns do not hide their discomfort at the fact that the Government approved one of its first two decrees, which lifted the sanctions for the drought in the municipalities, together with Junts. The message reached the Ministry of Economy: if the photo is repeated, they will not find them so receptive when it comes to negotiating the votes in which the Government, in the minority, is playing to be able to demonstrate that it has a parliamentary majority behind it to push the legislature.