The candidate of the PSC for the presidency of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, is ready to "turn a page" on the "lost decade" of the process, as he has been saying for some time, but he also wants to govern. With this objective, and in view of possible inconclusive results after the May 12 parliamentary elections that will force him – if he wins, as all the polls predict – to obtain support from at least one other parliamentary group, he called yesterday to rehearse "formulas of collaboration" and not of "confrontation" between the different parties based on an "attitude of respect". "I don't want a veto government, I don't want to veto anyone, I want to extend my hand", said Illa in statements to journalists from Igualada (Anoia).
Most polls indicate that Illa will prevail on May 12, but with an insufficient majority to govern. Both Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Catalunya have sent repeated messages to the effect that they will not give their votes to the socialist candidate in any way, although, unlike what happened before the February elections of 2021, no pro-independence party has signed a document in which it undertakes not to agree on the formation of a government with the PSC "under any circumstances".
The first secretary of the Socialists affirmed yesterday from the capital of the Anoia region that it is time to stop "fostering divisions in Catalan society", which is "plural and diverse", and that he is committed to "unite" instead of dividing, as his campaign slogan says.
The PSC candidate, who also visited the neighboring town of Vilanova del Camí, insisted that the next elections must enable an executive to bet on "the formulas that serve to move forward, which are collaboration and cooperation; collaboration between institutions, with citizens, with sectors". "You get more by collaborating than by confronting and vetoing", reiterated Illa, who attributed these vetoes to other formations without specifying which ones.
As he did on Thursday at the "Unir i servir" conference - the pre-campaign slogan of the Socialists -, Illa insisted that Catalonia needs a "third major transformation" to improve its public services and defended that from the institutions it must accompany the "energy and capacity to do things" shown by Catalan civil society.
The first secretary of the Catalan Socialists added that if he succeeds in becoming president after the May 12 elections, he will focus on "the things that really affect the citizens", and he mentioned areas such as the drought, education, infrastructure, renewable energy, healthcare and housing.
