The iron alliance between Pedro Sánchez and Salvador Illa

BarcelonaIt will probably not surprise anyone if we state that Salvador Illa is the main pillar that Pedro Sánchez has left in Spain. The current head of the Catalan executive was the PSOE leader's bet to reconquer the Palau de la Generalitat in 2021 after years of independence governments. He did not achieve it at first, but after three years of waiting, the socialists returned to preside over the Government.Their idyll had been born from Illa's time as Minister of Health: it was in the midst of the pandemic when the two socialist leaders forged a bond, political and personal, that has not cracked with the passage of years. Not even now, when the Spanish president is going through his worst moment of the legislature, besieged by various judicial cases that involve his closest political and personal circle. In fact, it is now that Salvador Illa has shown him his most unconditional support. Also at the risk of tying his political future to the fate of the Spanish president.

“The best political asset that the progressive option we represent has is Pedro Sánchez. I will do everything in my power for him to continue being president of the government,” Illa said last week in an interview with TVE. It is the most recent proof of how the PSC leader has become Sánchez's main supporter. From his circle, they point out that the president does not fear that this position may end up backfiring on him, but rather that he is “convinced” of the fierce defense he is making of the PSOE leader. Regarding the Ábalos, Koldo, and Cerdán cases, but also that of Leire Díez, the so-called PSOE plumber, Illa assures that Sánchez had no knowledge of them. “[Pedro Sánchez] He didn't see it, he felt betrayed,” he added in an interview with RAC1 last Monday. And he stressed that the socialists had acted with “forcefulness” against the corruption that is surrounding them. From the president's circle, they maintain that these are cases that “no one expected,” not even the President of the Generalitat, despite having shared a council of ministers with Ábalos.

However, of all the judicial investigations that plague the PSOE, Salvador Illa, like the PSOE leadership, has wanted to pull the cases of Begoña Gómez, Pedro Sánchez's wife, and also former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, out of the corruption bag. The clearest evidence was on Saturday when Judge Juan Carlos Peinado decided to withdraw Gómez's passport: Illa joined the Spanish government's criticism and accused the magistrate of having adopted a decision "difficult to understand and clearly excessive". The PSC leader has also vouched for Zapatero, with whom he has revealed he has spoken in recent days and will continue to do so. In fact, he defended his "honorability" and "presumption of innocence".

Sánchez's successor?

Illa and Sánchez continue to speak often, according to sources close to the President of the Generalitat. "He is the best president of the government Spain has had," said the head of the Catalan executive about Sánchez in the control session of Parliament on June 17 – the day José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero testified before the judge. His unconditional support for the Spanish president has also led to speculation about the extent to which it could be a way of preparing the ground to become his successor. However, Illa himself dismissed this last week when, in an interview with TVE, he was asked about this issue: "No, not at all." If this were to happen, it would be the first time the PSOE would present a PSC militant in a general election.

The PSOE has little territorial power left, and in an autonomous map dominated by the PP and Vox, the President of the Generalitat is almost the only endorsement for the Spanish president. He does not have the endorsement of the critical Emiliano García-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha; but he does have the support of the president of Navarra, María Chivite, and of Asturias, Adrián Barbón. Chivite, however, carries a burden: her political relationship with Santos Cerdán – even though she is not under investigation–. In Barbón's case, despite being a sanchista baron, his support for the Spanish president has cracks: the Asturian does not endorse the reform of regional financing, because he opposes the proposal agreed with ERC. In contrast, Illa and Sánchez are also moving in the same direction on this issue. In fact, the Catalan president has not wanted to pressure Sánchez too much given the demands of the Republicans on issues such as the transfer of IRPF collection – which has not yet materialized.

Illa's support, therefore, is the clearest that Sánchez has. So much so that the Catalan president himself plans to spend a few days of his vacation in Lanzarote again with the Secretary General of the PSOE. "I am a man of quite fixed habits," he said last week on RAC1 on this matter. Illa already went there in August two years ago, a few days after he was invested as President of the Generalitat, and he returned last year. This year's holidays will be the last before Sánchez undergoes scrutiny at the polls next year. And if we are to believe the polls, they could also be the last before Alberto Núñez Feijóo arrives at La Moncloa with the help of Vox. Then Catalonia would become a kind of socialist oasis with Illa as an exponent of resistance.