Salvador Illa puts his plan in education and housing to the test

BarcelonaSalvador Illa gives the formal starting signal for the political year this Thursday afternoon. The President of the Generalitat will begin the general policy debate in Parliament with a speech that is expected to be marked by housing and the consecutive crises besieging the socialist executive, especially regarding education.

The general policy debate will begin on the same day that the council of ministers has approved the new decree to fight against evictions and increase the protection of tenants, the already known as Maricarmen decree. Thus, at a time when access to housing is a hot topic, government sources expect that Illa will dedicate a good part of his intervention to defending the work done in this field, to maintaining the promises made—such as the construction of 50,000 homes and the mobilization of land for 214,000 apartments—and, even, to launching some new announcement in this regard.

It is also expected that the President of the Generalitat will focus on education. In fact, Illa already appeared last week in Parliament in an extraordinary plenary session to give explanations for the PISA test fiasco. At that time, he defended the socialist management in Education, despite the fact that for months he has had the teaching staff up in arms; he ratified the promise to air-condition all classrooms in Catalonia over the next five years and called on all political parties to reach a national pact on Education to put an end to the educational crisis.

On the other hand, and as is customary, it is expected that the leader of the PSC will contrast his government with the far right, and will defend democratic values, also in an international context of authoritarian drift. "The great battle of our time is democracy or authoritarianism. Catalonia is clear about which side it is on," point out government sources.

After his speech, this Thursday's plenary session will be considered concluded and it will not be until tomorrow, Friday morning, that the session will resume. The various parliamentary groups will also present their legislative proposals this Thursday, which will be voted on Friday afternoon, when the general policy debate will conclude.