The first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, has been officially proclaimed, once again, first secretary of the party and, therefore, a foreseeable candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The socialist leader has obtained the necessary endorsements to participate in the internal primary process (a minimum of 150 endorsements were needed) and has not found a rival, since no other militant has presented any alternative candidacy. Therefore, Illa has been re-elected leader of the PSC, although the decision must be ratified at the ordinary congress that the party will hold from March 15 to 17 in Barcelona.
In a brief statement released this Friday, the PSC reports that the deadline for submitting candidates has ended and once the electoral authority has validated the support signatures presented, Salvador Illa has been proclaimed the first elected secretary of the PSC. But party sources confirm that he has been the only candidate who has presented himself and that he has received a number of endorsements well above the minimum necessary.
Among the endorsements that Illa has collected is that of practically all of the organic and institutional power of the party, such as the mayors of many municipalities, including those of the Catalan capitals; deputies of the Parliament; MEPs; councilors; all former first secretaries of the PSC; the former organizational secretaries; the former presidents of the party; all former PSC ministers in the Government of Spain; the current Minister of Industry Jordi Hereu; as well as the former president of Congress, Meritxell Batet, and the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
The PSC began the primary process for the organic renewal of the party on January 9, informing the membership that it was opening the internal procedure for the election of candidates. Applicants had two days to communicate their intentions (between January 15 and 17), collect the necessary signatures, attach a document with the proposed political and organizational lines, the structure of the executive committee and the amendments, if any, to the party statutes.
But no one has dared to compete against Illa, who shows undisputed leadership in the formation and there are no known critical voices. The results of the latest electoral events contribute to the absence of internal contestation, where the PSC has successively emerged as the winner. He won the 14-F by a narrow margin of 5,000 votes, he also won the municipal elections of May 28, 2023 with 710,000 votes, and swept the general elections with 19 seats.
Illa took over the first secretary of the PSC a year after being elected in primaries as an electoral candidate in the 14-F elections, after passing to the side of the then leader of the party, Miquel Iceta, who resigned from being so with the help of the Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez.
Although there is still no date for the Catalan elections, the socialist machinery was launched a month ago with the announcement of the holding of the ordinary congress in March. The party has prepared a framework presentation for this conclave, a roadmap with Illa's seal focused on management, on "things to eat", they say, with which they want to bury the “inaction” of the successive pro-independence governments during the stage of the process, which has “dragged by fatalism” a Generalitat “without direction and without a helmsman,” they diagnose.
Illa's re-election comes the day after it became known that the president of the Government, Pere Aragonès, will be his opponent in the next Catalan elections, still undated, by Esquerra. An ordinary national council of the republican formation that will take place this Saturday will endorse this.
