It could be said that Salvador Illa finds the Parliament tedious. It shows in these control sessions every other Wednesday, when he handles many of the opposition’s questions with generic replies and without using the available time fully. To give you an idea: each spokesperson has two and a half minutes for their question divided into two turns, and the same applies to the president’s answers. Well, this very Wednesday, Illa had 1:07 minutes left over in his response to Junts per Catalunya, 1:17 with the Popular Party (PP), and 1:33 when answering the Commons. And these are just three examples of a pattern that often repeats.
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Similarly, there is a type of response that contributes to the feeling that the president of the Generalitat is in a hurry to finish a cumbersome procedure and return to management, to the concrete, to making decisions: these are general answers that do not engage with the issue or the heart of the matter but rather skim over it. Sometimes, finishing the intervention with broad attacks on the current opponent. Two examples from the last session: “You [Alejandro Fernández, PP spokesperson] are part of a party that (…) does not stand by our country to defend us from Netanyahu’s threats,” and “you [Ignacio Garriga, Vox leader] are Trump, who chases immigrants through the streets of the US, you are Orbán, who by the way has lost the elections, and I am closer to Pope Leo XIV.”
It can be understood that it is tedious to repeatedly hear unoriginal arguments or endure the torrents of broad and baseless statements from the far right, to give an example. But it is sometimes surprising to see how the president refuses to provide a more concrete argument to refute them.
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This Wednesday, the main topic was the abstention of the socialist councilors of Ripoll that allowed the approval of the Aliança Catalana budgets. Illa denied any connivance with the ultra leader Sílvia Orriols, assuring: “Neither I nor my party will make deals with those who defend hate speeches.” But some detail was missing that could explain how it happened that the local section of the PSC acted without the knowledge of the leadership. Because, until the moment the councilors were expelled, the socialist group in the city council did facilitate the path for AC. The party acted immediately, but afterwards. This matter, moreover, has highlighted the difficulties of finding the best strategy against ultra formations when they have the wind in their favor. You only had to see Orriols’ satisfaction today in the chamber, mocking what happened and verbally gifting Esquerra and Junts. This Sunday, in this newspaper, analyst Claudi Pérez offered some proposals after Orbán’s defeat in Hungary: “More than abstract ideas, Magyar [election winner] went straight to a target, the economy and purchasing power.”
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