Barcelona has hosted in just one week a symposium organized by the European media Politico, two international summits, and a conference, the Global Progressive Mobilisation, on global progressivism. The Govern maintains that the hectic agenda of these days reveals that Catalonia has regained its “international prestige,” which the socialists consider was lost during the decade of the procés. The president Salvador Illa, who met this Friday with the president of Brazil Lula da Silva, has bet since taking office in 2024 on external projection and internationalization policies, something that now suits him perfectly with the budgets up in the air and teachers and doctors at war demanding labor improvements.
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As host, Illa has received presidents Pedro Sánchez and Lula da Silva who held the first Spain-Brazil summit at the Palau de Pedralbes, a venue that serves as the Generalitat’s second headquarters. Illa, who remained in a discreet second plane, welcomed Lula stating that his presence in Catalonia was an honor, according to Govern sources. This Saturday he will again act as host at the IV Democratic Meeting. Meanwhile, he has deployed an intense agenda with about ten meetings with international leaders. This Friday he met with Lula at the Supercomputing Center and on Sunday he will meet with the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum. This Saturday he will meet with the president of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi. The lunch with Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, has been suspended.
The warlike policy imposed by Trump has reinforced Illa’s commitment to multilateralism and peace. “Those of us who do not like where the world is going have to organize ourselves,” he says. The president Illa has been in office for barely a year and a half but during this time he has visited Japan, China, Korea, Mexico and has frequented various European cities such as Paris, London, Rome, or Milan to promote, for example, the organization of the Four European Motors encouraged by Jordi Pujol. He said from day one that he wanted to travel as many times to Brussels as to Madrid and among his main visits is that of Pope Leo XIV or attending in London the Circular Bieconomy Alliance, founded by King Charles III of England with whom he discussed climate change. His sudden illness – Pubic Osteomyelitis – cut short his program and his trips to the United States or Germany have been postponed.
All that agenda is and has been a reality but now foreign policy suits Illa because, like Pedro Sánchez, it sidelines his domestic problems, which are not few. That said: little to do with those of the past because there were no protests and they were limited to a handful of Vox supporters and the CUP has deployed advertising posters on bus shelters warning that there can be no peace within NATO nor without self-determination. With a minority Govern, supported by ERC and Comuns, Illa was forced to withdraw his budget project after failing to meet ERC’s demand for progress in IRPF collection by the Generalitat. It was a way to avoid an unprecedented parliamentary defeat in the history of the Chamber. Both parties have given themselves until summer to approve the accounts and leave behind the fact that Catalonia continues to be governed by the 2023 budgets.
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El compromís d’@iallendebussi amb la democràcia, els drets humans i la memòria històrica és un magnífic exemple per als qui creiem en una política al servei de la gent. La seva trajectòria dignifica les institucions i enforteix els valors democràtics. Benvinguda a Catalunya. pic.twitter.com/2tHxZtzswC
— Salvador Illa Roca (@salvadorilla) April 17, 2026
With the financing model – the agreement he most claims – pending approval in Congress, Illa has had to navigate the perennial crisis of the collapsed Rodalies and has had to backtrack on his plan to apply economic incentives for adjusting sick leaves. He also has two other conflicts: that of the doctors and that of the teachers who demand salary improvements, more resources, and less bureaucracy after Illa raised the salary of the mossos. And something more: he announced imminent improvements in the governance of El Prat airport, as ERC demands, but the president of AENA, Maurici Lucena, denies it and maintains that it is legally impossible because the owners of the Spanish airports are the shareholders (the majority shareholding is public). Illa is navigating all these crises and this Friday, happy, before meeting with Isabel Allende, expressed his pride that Barcelona hosts the world conference that will close this Saturday.
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