Ben Pawlowski
A KEY ally of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is set to be named as the new President of Catalunya after the Socialists finally struck a deal with the pro-independence, left-wing Esquerra Republicana (ERC) to secure their support for his investiture.
Salvador Illa, a former health minister, appears destined to become regional president following months of uncertainty after an inconclusive election in May led to a frantic summer of negotiations.
Illa was one of two candidates – the other being former president and fugitive from Spanish justice Carles Puigdemont – of the two parties who secured the most seats in the vote.
Puigdemont’s separatist Junts party won 35 seats, whilst Illa’s PSC Socialists won 42 seats, with both falling well short of the 68 seats required to form a majority in the regional parliament.
Now, Illa looks set to reach the presidency after striking a deal with the left-wing, separatist ERC who secured 20 seats in the election.
As part of the preliminary agreement, which has been accepted in principle by the executive committee of the PSC and PSOE, the Catalan government will, from 2025, assume 100% responsibility for the collection of taxes within the autonomous community, including income tax, VAT and levies on tourist rentals.
The move was described as an ‘advance towards fiscal sovereignty’ for the region, allowing the Generalitat, as the regional government is known, to ‘collect, settle and inspect 100% of the taxes’, bar municipal taxation.
Raquel Sans, an ERC spokesperson, said: “We are talking about the collection of 100% of taxes, that Catalunya will pay the state for the services it provides, and that we will pay a solidarity fee as long as we are not independent, which will be set transparently and independently”.
Alongside the revised financing model, the pact includes the creation of a National Convention for the Resolution of the Political Conflict, a cross-party committee which will seek to resolve the independence question.
The Catalan independence movement, known in Spain as the ‘proces’, reached its nadir in 2017 with an illegal referendum and unilateral declaration of independence, prompting a spate of criminal charges which led to a host of separatist figures, including Puigdemont, fleeing Spain.
In addition, the deal agrees to establish a Department of Catalan Language, raise taxes on casinos and to create a new Airport Authority of Catalunya.
If the members of the ERC agree to the terms of the deal, parliamentary speaker Josep Rull, a Puigdemont ally who spent three years in prison for his role in the independence push, will call an investiture session for next week where Illa’s programme will be approved, or not, by MPs.
Illa will need the support of his party, the ERC and the far-left Sumar coalition to formally become the new President of Catalunya.
If Illa secures the votes required, he will become the first regional president to not come from a pro-independence party since the Franco dictatorship.
Prior to May’s election, which was called by incumbent Catalan president and ERC leader Pere Aragones after his budget was voted down by opposition parties, Illa called on voters to ‘unite’ and turn the page away from a ‘lost decade’ of chaotic and unstable rule led by separatist parties.
He had vowed to shun the independence question and instead focus on improving the region’s ‘neglected’ public services, although this may be hindered by his pact with the ERC.
Illa has vowed to expand Barcelona’s El-Prat airport, improve the commuter rail network, invest in new highways and build over 4,000 homes per year to solve the housing crisis.
