Salvador Illa submits to pressure from his partners to gauge the oxygen in his term.

BarcelonaWith the uncertainty surrounding whether the Catalan government will have to survive another year without a budget as the midpoint of the term approaches, Salvador Illa faces his second general policy debate as president of the Generalitat. The plenary session, which begins this Tuesday, will serve to gauge the level of pressure from the partners, ERC and Comuns, and determine how far they are willing to go to give the legislature a boost. So far, both parties have warned that they will not sit down to negotiate next year's budget until they see "progress" on the one-off financing, in the case of the Republicans, and the government complies with the housing agreements, in the case of Comuns. The Catalan government maintains that it will comply with the investiture agreements and that the president of the Generalitat will be "ambitious." The question is whether this ambition will be enough for the partners to continue to sustain governability.

Just hours before the debate began, the Minister for the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, played down the partners' demands and asserted that the Catalan government enjoys "solid stability." In this regard, he reiterated that he has not yet opened budget negotiations because he is still preparing the project internally. Speaking to Catalunya Ràdio, Dalmau announced that during the general policy debate, Prime Minister Salvador Illa will announce "more measures" in housing, with an eye toward public-private partnerships. A year ago, the Prime Minister used his first general policy debate to prioritize one of the points of the investiture agreement with the ERC (Republican Left) and Comuns (Communist Party): promote 50,000 public housing units by 2030.

Housing will not only be the issue Illa will focus on, but also the Commons. The party led by Jéssica Albiach in the Parliament demands the implementation of some of the measures agreed upon with the Government, such as the sanctioning regime and the full implementation of the housing law, according to sources within the party. However, they will also defend a proposal to prohibit "speculative purchases" of housing. This was explained by party spokesperson Gerardo Pisarello at a press conference. "The ban on speculative purchases is a measure that allows people who live, who reside in the neighborhoods, to have priority access to housing and prevents purchases based on speculation," he explained. Pisarello lamented the "lack of willingness" of the PSC to "touch the interests" of property owners and recalled that seasonal rentals still need to be regulated—work is still being done in the Parliament—and sanctions for breaches of the housing law need to be started.

Junts will also present proposals on housing, one of which is to increase the registration requirement to 10 years for access to social housing. The PSC spokesperson and number two in the party, Lluïsa Moret, did not advance the Socialists' position on these two proposals, but she did advance that Illa will bring to the plenary session proposals not only on housing, but also on security and public services. However, the Catalan president is not expected to make the new budget for 2026 the focus of his speech, reports the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC). Martina Alcobendas.

Unique Financing

ERC will bring the issue of one-off financing to the debate and once again demand that Salvador Illa comply with the investiture agreement. The steps ERC demands to comply with the financing agreement do not strictly depend on the government; rather, for Isla's commitment to be real, the Spanish government must be willing to take steps. In other words, the president needs the PSOE to make a move so that the government is not weakened. However, in this week's debate, the Catalan leader plans to insist on his commitment to implementing the new financing model and present it as the key to Catalonia improving public services, one of the Socialist leader's obsessions.

Aside from financing, the Republicans will also bring a proposal to defend free school meals and all extracurricular activities. "Financial resources are needed, and therefore fair financing is needed to address important needs," argued ERC spokesperson Isaac Albert at a press conference.

Together and the Brussels Agreement

The opposition, Juntos, already announced a few weeks ago that its goal is for Salvador Illa to commit to the Brussels Agreement, and most of its resolution proposals will be in that direction. In fact, the regional council members have already warned of this. during the meeting of the parliamentary group held in Waterloo in mid-September to prepare for the political course. "You can't build in Switzerland and destroy in Barcelona," point out sources from the parliamentary group, who accuse the PSC of "torpedoing the spirit" of the Brussels Agreement with votes in which the Socialists have participated alongside the PP and Vox—they estimate it has happened 80 times in Parliament. The Junts members, in this regard, will also bring proposals to defend an economic agreement—they see the ERC pact with the Socialists as insufficient—or to reduce the tax burden, among others.

In this sense, Junts will also include in one of their proposals one of the ideas they have been repeating for months: the "weakness" of the Government. In the text, to which ARA has had access, the Junts members denounce that the Executive has not yet approved a budget and has not "stood up" to the Spanish government to demand, among other things, "the liquidation of the infrastructure execution deficit, thus perpetuating an unsatisfactory" and damaging grievance.

One of the issues that Carles Puigdemont's party is demanding from the PSOE is to materialize the transfer of immigration powers. A debate that It ended in failure a few days ago in Congress due to the veto of Podemos.. Precisely, the Lilacs have accused Junts of making this request to curb the rise of the Catalan Alliance. Sílvia Orriols' party will once again bring the immigration issue to the plenary session this week to warn, once again, of "the progression of Islamism" in Catalonia, in addition to presenting itself as "the only reference point for the 1-O mandate" that it considers "current," the party points out.

Along the same lines as the Catalan Alliance, Vox will once again link immigration with "insecurity" in a xenophobic discourse that is the tone of the two far-right parties. The PP, for its part, also wants to influence the immigration debate and security. The party also notes how the far-right led by Ignacio Garriga in Catalonia is hot on its heels. In fact, the latest poll by The Vanguard, a few days ago, indicated a overtaking of Vox in the PP in the next Catalan elections.