Illa: "Pardons neither closer nor further away after Madrid election results"

The leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has assessed PP leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso's results in Madrid, who on Tuesday doubled her results in the region with a very critical discourse on the Spanish government's management of the pandemic, while the PSOE fell to third place. However, he rejected that these results mean a defeat for Pedro Sánchez. "They have wanted to portray it this way, but voters have made a choice in the Community of Madrid", said the Socialist in an interview with Antoni Bassas: "Spain is not Madrid, it is much more than Madrid". He also ruled out that these results would affect the processing of pardons for political prisoners. "The result in Madrid does not bring pardons any closer or further away", he assured.

Illa also defended the idea of talks between the Spanish and Catalan governments, considering there should also be talks amongst all Catalan parties. However, he considered that the great "political lesson" of recent years is that "the rule of law cannot be broken unilaterally", and he called for "a new era to be opened and a policy of reunion", although he admitted that he has not made "the political gesture of going to see the prisoners".

While negotiations to form the new government in Catalonia continue between ERC and Junts, Illa has insisted on standing as a candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat if the president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, opens a round of contacts with the different parties, despite the fact that Borràs has already ruled out initiating a round of contacts until Aragonès is certain of being invested. "Pere Aragonès has lost two investiture sessions yet I haven't been allowed to try", he lamented, although he does not have the necessary support to be president. "What if I surprise everyone in my investiture session?" he asked, although he did not make any specific proposal.

Illa has also been critical of Catalan public television (Tv3). In line with the statements he has made in recent weeks pointing out what he considers to be a lack of plurality in the public media, he insisted that they have a "bias in political information" and pointed out that a debate is needed "on economic sustainability": "Tv3 has to be re-founded". Last Monday, the Socialists presented a document to address several reforms of the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA), which they sent to ERC and JxCat.