Salvador Illa, the president who dreams of bulldozers

BarcelonaMany things can be said about Salvador Illa, except that he isn't transparent in his political practices. Isla is a transparent politician. He doesn't deceive. And this is evident in his speeches. And this Tuesday, Illa made it clear that he dreams of a Catalonia filled with bulldozers and cranes, cement mixers and bricks, and large signs at the entrance to every town advertising new housing developments. But we don't think this is a mania. developer or speculative in the Josep Lluís Núñez style. No. For Isla, putting all his eggs in the housing basket is a "national mission" that allows him to achieve a triple win: boosting the economy, lowering prices (if it doesn't trigger a new bubble), and improving public spaces. And to achieve this, he also enjoys a very broad consensus, since practically no one in Catalonia is against building housing. The debate, if anything, is about what percentage should be public.

On this issue, then, Isla moves comfortably, as it also serves to mark a clear difference with the sovereignist governments. He is a president who doesn't talk about state structures, referendums, or clarity agreements, but rather about roads and outpatient clinics. The change compared to eight years ago is astronomical. And he does so with his particular style of a mayor who doesn't rely on environmental bodies. "We will do it with respect for the environment, but we will do it," he says in a tone that seems more like a threat than a promise: it's clear that, if it were up to him, he would already have all of Catalonia rebuilt in projects like Barcelona. "We have x-rayed Catalonia inch by inch," he proclaimed with satisfaction, displaying a knowledge of the territory similar to that of a mayor of his municipality, which inevitably leads one to think of Jordi Pujol but also of the municipalist DNA of the PSC.

At another point in the speech, speaking of healthcare, Illa says another of those phrases that define him. "Enough of making diagnoses, it's time to act," he says. The president doesn't want memoranda or reports; he wants proposals, he wants concrete measures, he wants action plans like the one presented to him by a group of experts to reform the administration. In short, he wants to inaugurate projects and leave as a legacy not great philosophical contributions but things that can be touched with the fingers. And let someone say in the future: "That [be it a road, a hospital, a research center, etc.] was built when Isla was president."