Illa pledges to work hard with Junts and ERC on funding and amnesty

BarcelonaThe last plenary session of the year was marked by ERC's demands for funding and Junts' reminder that the amnesty remains unimplemented in Spain, but also by the handling of the African swine fever outbreak, prompted by the Prime Minister's appearance before Parliament. In response to the pro-independence demands, Prime Minister Salvador Illa pledged to "work tirelessly" to secure the necessary funding next year, and also expressed his firm desire for it to be the year of an "effective" amnesty. Illa faced criticism from the opposition regarding the "instability" and "lack of direction," which lamented the drift of an executive branch without a budget. However, he also defended himself against opposition criticism regarding the management of the African swine fever outbreak, his absence during the first week of the crisis, and the possible origin of the outbreak at an IRTA laboratory. "With the data we have today, nothing allows us to conclude that the virus originated from the facilities of any of the laboratories or centers working with this virus," he stated without providing details, after the Ministry of Agriculture had suggested this possibility. Having reviewed IRTA's protocols, he said that the "appropriate" procedures had been followed, but he was not definitive because the investigations are ongoing: "This is the information I have, but we cannot have conclusive information on the matter," he clarified. The president admitted that on November 26, two days before the first positive case was made public, internal suspicions arose regarding the reappearance of African swine fever due to an infected wild boar, three decades after its eradication in the Principality. He also commented that there are currently 26 wild boars with the virus, detected within a 20-kilometer radius encompassing 91 municipalities, and that seven countries, including some important exporters such as Japan, the Philippines, and Mexico—where he had recently traveled—do not accept the regionalization of the plague and the export of the infected animals. However, he emphasized that the outbreak has already been contained, that 75 percent of non-EU markets are open, and mentioned the ten million euro aid package for the sector, expandable to twenty million, and the ICF credit line of up to fifty million euros. Regarding the wild boar population, he stated that it stands at 180,000, which they aim to reduce by half, although he cautioned that the crisis will not be resolved in a month.

Promises and Criticisms

"We are working tirelessly. Things will be fine," Illa said regarding the funding. When asked about the judicial amnesty surrounding the Catalan independence process, he also wanted to be emphatic: "I want the amnesty to take effect in 2026. If that happens, we will have all taken a step forward together," he declared. However, he has also had disagreements with the People's Party (PP) over the handling of the DGAIA scandal, and he recommended that the leader of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols, read Paco Candel's book. The other Catalansand lashed out at Vox for linking the collapse of health services to immigration:What an abutere tandem, our patience"Mr. [Ignacio] Garriga?" he said in Latin, echoing Cicero to rail against the alleged abuses of the far right. Meanwhile, the president of the main opposition group, Junts member Mònica Sales, gave a scathing assessment of the Junts government's performance in Madrid and reiterated her offer to ERC to rebuild "pro-independence unity" and capitalize more on the "weakness" of the Spanish executive for the benefit of the country. Sales criticized "policies dictated by the Comuns or against Catalonia hand in hand with the PP and Vox," while boasting about initiatives in Congress, such as the one concerning repeat offenders, which Isla acknowledged. "We're doing things well, and in 2026 we'll do them even better," she concluded, before criticizing Junts votes in Congress, such as those against the spending cap, which have "prevented Catalonia from obtaining more resources." Jové stated that there were no issues with budgets or stability, but explained that this situation arises because the financing model for the Principality is not yet finalized, and that this is a necessary condition for reviewing the accounts. Jové also reiterated the commitment to resolving the political conflict with the State through voting, another point of agreement. However, the leader of the Comuns party, Jéssica Albiach, again focused on transportation. bonus is given again after a pact with his party – and that the executive "begin to impose sanctions on those who commit fraud with rentals."