Salvador Illa sets new financing as a "priority" and promises to go "all the way" in the PISA fiasco

BarcelonaSalvador Illa reaches the halfway point of his term with the stability he sought, with his first budgets, but closes the political year without being able to quell one of the crises he has been dealing with for months: the educational one. In fact, the conflict with teachers has worsened in recent days following the PISA test fiasco, but the President of the Generalitat has once again reaffirmed his confidence in the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, and has assured that the Government will go to the end to find out what happened. Despite the crisis, Illa has boasted about the country's progress and has put the new financing model as a "priority" for his term. In fact, he has expressed confidence in maintaining the support of his partners until the end of the legislature and has assured that he does not plan to make any further changes to his cabinet after the replacement of the head of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez Bravo.Freshly returned from his official trip to Vietnam and Singapore, Illa appeared this Friday at a press conference at the Palau de la Generalitat to review his second year in office and took the opportunity to announce an increase in public works in the coming months of around 500 million euros and also his next trip: Ukraine. "We are cooperating very well and it is important to send a message of support for the enormous effort being made," Illa defended. However, the president admitted that the Government has pending issues to resolve, including the housing crisis, but also to fulfill the flagship investiture agreement that the socialists signed with ERC: the new financing model. "It is the priority," he admitted.

"In September, the excuses end"

Illa's words come the week that the Spanish government has postponed until September 4 the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF) scheduled for this week, in which this new model was to be discussed and voted on. "We are in extra time and on September 4 the excuses run out," said Illa, who has once again asked for "responsibility" from all regional governments, especially those of the PP, who reject the proposal. The message, however, was also directed at Junts, which also does not plan to endorse the new model when it reaches the lower house because it considers it insufficient.

The president has assured that he will make "discreet" and other "public" moves to try to move forward with the new funding, although he has not wanted to detail which ones. However, Illa has hinted that the transfer of IRPF collection, one of the issues that remained pending to be fulfilled within the framework of the budgetary negotiations with ERC and also with the Spanish government, remains up in the air. "I remain committed to these [investiture] agreements, but now the priority is funding," said Illa.

In fact, it was the Spanish government that closed the door to materializing the transfer of IRPF to Catalonia, despite it being signed in Salvador Illa's investiture agreement. The Government, in this sense, has once again aligned itself with Pedro Sánchez's executive on funding matters and has also defended the PSOE's management of the corruption cases that have implicated it, such as the Ábalos case. "For those who are not up to par, let decisive and rapid decisions be made," he said. However, regarding the Zapatero case, Illa insisted on defending his presumption of innocence: "He [Zapatero] will explain himself".

Support for Niubó

The crisis that the Government cannot solve is the educational one. Teacher strikes marked the end of the school year and will also mark the beginning, as unions have already announced a new stoppage for the first day of school, September 8. And to this conflict has been added the fiasco of the PISA tests. Illa has once again defended the department's management of this scandal: "I have asked the minister to get to the bottom of this matter to know what happened." "When we know, we will make the decisions we have to make," he added.

The ministry explained that it became aware of the "error" in the percentage of student exclusion in March, but it was not until this July that they explained it. "I found out when the minister told me," said Illa, who insisted: "We will go to the end." However, Illa has not gone beyond the explanations given so far by the ministry, which have clashed with the Spanish government's account and have convinced neither the opposition nor the sector.

Infrastructure and fire prevention

Illa wanted to close the political year by announcing an increase in public works. The Government boasts of having increased tenders this year by up to 17% compared to 2025 and a total of 89% compared to 2022, with Pere Aragonès at the head of the Government. In absolute figures, by July 31, works worth 502.7 million have been tendered, while the executive foresees 510.1 million more until the end of the year. It calculates that, in total, this 2026 will have mobilized 1400 million euros. Among the works that the executive has already tendered are the variant of Les Preses and Olot, budgeted at 447 million euros. Apart from infrastructure, the Government also wants to tender various public works in the educational and health sectors.

Given the fires of recent days, especially those that have affected Madrid and the Valencian Country, Illa wanted to send a message of solidarity to these territories and explained that the Government has increased by 100 million the resources foreseen in the 2026 budgets allocated to prevention: in total, 386 million.

The opposition sees Illa's speech as "propaganda"

Illa's balance sheet has not pleased the opposition and Junts has accused him of engaging in "propaganda" and delivering a "triumphalist" speech without "self-criticism," stated spokesperson Salvador Vergés. From the PP, Lorena Roldán has branded the Government a "political fraud" and demanded that it call elections. In contrast, ERC maintains confidence in Illa, and its spokesperson in Parliament, Ester Capella, has assured that they will continue "accompanying" the Government, adding: "We need more ambition, more leadership, and more sense of country. That is what we often miss in the Government." For the commons, despite being investiture partners, they did not like Illa's speech because they consider it to have been "triumphalist" as it did not address issues such as healthcare waiting lists or the "mess" of Rodalies. For their part, CUP deputy Pilar Castillejo has stated that Illa lives in a "delirium" and accused him of not having a "response" to problems such as the educational crisis.