The PSC's shift in foreign policy: what did it say and what is it saying now?

BarcelonaThe President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has returned from his trip to Japan and Korea convinced that the future of the Generalitat's foreign policy lies in Asia. So much so that his government is already working on a plan to intensify relations between Catalonia and the continent, which will be presented in the coming months, and which could mean opening new offices in China or India. However, the PSC hasn't always been as enthusiastic about expanding its network of delegations abroad. In 2023, for example, it demanded that then-president Pere Aragonès halt the opening of new offices that year. Have the Socialists changed their stance now that Salvador Illa is in charge of the Generalitat?

PSC sources consulted by ARA deny this and point out that their party has always been in favor of Catalonia's foreign action to promote its economic and cultural interests, as did presidents Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla. They emphasize that, even when Ciudadanos and the PP took the fight to the delegations to the extreme, calling for their closure during the Process, the PSC distanced itself from that position, even though it could have a negative impact on them at the polls.

However, in the last legislature, the Socialists attacked the "very extensive and opaque" structure of foreign action that, in their opinion, was developed during the Process. This was reflected in the following: in a document prepared by the Government under the shadow of Salvador Illa, which also criticized "the existence of a total of 45 international trips by the president and the advisors, with a total of more than 470,000 euros, whose main objective was the promotion of the so-called process," between 2011 and 2017, according to a report by the Court of Auditors.

A "state structure"

In the same document, the PSC lamented that at that time, "the most symbolic issues were prioritized—delegations, relations with multilateral organizations, relations with other states—and a department responsible for, among other matters, foreign action was created—with great difficulty—with the undisguised objective of adding to the bulk of this structure." However, sources from the Socialist parliamentary group point out that it is one thing to discuss the political approach to foreign action taken by the independence movement—which they considered lacking in "institutional loyalty"—and another to discuss foreign action itself.

Precisely, and in statements from Japan, Isla himself assured that, as head of the opposition, he never entered to criticize Aragonés's travels"And I want to remind you that on some issues related to the offices abroad and the selection process for Action staff and delegations, he had the support of my party," he added. However, during the last term, off the record, PSC leaders were critical of the agenda of some of Aragonès' trips, for example, during the tour of Latin America and the failed meeting with Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The peak of the pulse

The climax of the PSC's standoff with ERC over the delegations abroad reached the 2023 budget negotiations. The Socialists put on the table the demand to unblock the Hard Rock Stadium, the B-40 highway, and the expansion of Barcelona Airport, but also the inadvisability of not opening them during the current situation. In 2023, the Generalitat's accounts reached a historic high: €41.025 billion, with a 15.2% increase in non-financial income, and Catalan economic growth at 5.5%, with inflation beginning to decline. "The economic issue was an excuse; the delegations are a tiny part of the budget. They were bothered by the foreign action," opines an ERC leader regarding that negotiation.

Finally, the request was not included in the budget agreement, which allocated 15 million to the delegations (one and a half million more than the previous year), but The Government ended up assuming that in 2023 it would not open new ones and would focus on consolidating the existing ones.Socialist sources justify this veto by the need to "review" how the network is organized and the "questionable" criteria proposed in 2023 for its expansion. They also believe it was necessary to "rationalize" the resources allocated, a task currently being undertaken by the regional minister, Jaume Duch. This has been done, for example, in South Korea, where Acció will finally set up shop at the headquarters of the political delegation after operating separately since it opened its doors in 2023.

The investiture, second part of the game

Despite the differences between ERC and PSC over the delegations, the second half of the game was played in the negotiation of the investiture agreement for Salvador Illa. Esquerra demanded that the Socialists commit to expanding the network during the legislature and promote the external action body that Serret left half-finished (the law has already been passed). The Republicans celebrate having forced the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) to achieve this compromise, although they are suspicious of the department's current policy.

In this regard, Republican sources regret that the Socialists want to "subordinate" foreign action to the discourse of the Spanish government and the ambassadors, who are omnipresent on the president's international trips. In fact, they point out that the PSC once suggested that, to facilitate procedures, delegates request diplomatic passports from embassies, which would have left them at the mercy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Regarding Isla's tour of Japan and Korea, they also express doubts and want to closely monitor the spending dedicated to the government, a concern also conveyed by Junts.