The first institutional message of Salvador Illa (PSC) As president of the Generalitat of Catalonia on the occasion of the Diada, a regional festival celebrated every September 11, he distanced himself from the speeches of his predecessors, in particular Father Aragonès (ERC), Quim Torra (Junts) And Carles Puigdemont (CiU), This has filled them with historicist references, secessionist and even warlike demands. The leader of the Catalan socialists, who has just finished a month as president of the Generalitat, has appealed to “diversity” as one of the “strengths” of Catalonia, but he has done so only in Catalan.
As usual, on the eve of the Catalan festival, the President of the Generalitat addressed the citizens in a recorded message and then broadcast on TV3. Illa recovered the Palace of the Generalitat for the scene, after a few years in which Aragonès chose to “decentralize” the environment of the message outside the official residence, and he did so with the bust of Joseph Tarradellas behind him, with the idea of ”justifying” the first president of the Generalitat after the restoration of democracy, who was characterized by his capacity for “dialogue and perseverance”, sources from the Presidency stressed.
Illa claimed a Diada that should belong “to all Catalans” and, after stressing the need to improve public services and a “dynamic civil society”, he highlighted “diversity” as a “strength” of Catalonia. A “diversity” that, however, He only said in Catalan, since he did not utter a single word in Spanish, even though the socialist leader had also pretended to use Spanish in many of his speeches in Parliament – until his election as “president” – and it is the official language and the majority of the population of the community.
“Catalonia has also been built thanks to the work of generations of people from cities in Spain and around the world. We cannot close our eyes to the reality of the migratory phenomenon. It is a global emergency resulting from inequalities in the world and that no country can solve alone. Catalonia has always been a welcoming land and a land of solidarity. And now it will be exemplary again. Citizens of Catalonia: All those who come to improve Catalonia are Catalans. With the same rights and duties that we all have,” he said.
After this direct reference to the problem of immigration, the president of the Generalitat defended, with “optimism” and “hope”, that there was much “work to be done”. In his speech, did not make a single mention of financing reform, agrees with ERC in his investiture agreement and this tears the internal consensus of the PSOE since it would mean an economic agreement for Catalonia, that is, the other regions would have fewer resources. But he reaffirmed that “Catalonia is and must be a collective project that binds us all without distinctions.”
The Diada, a celebration that Vox and Cs do not claim and that the PP celebrates at half speed due to the partisan use that nationalism has made of the date, is presented this year, one more, with the independence movement divided. The main reason is the loss of autonomous power due to secessionism and the fact that Illa was elected president of the Generalitat with the votes of the ERC, which is in an internal process to elect the new leadership and in conflict, in turn, with the Junts led by Puigdemont but without a visible leader with political authority in Parliament. This Wednesday, a low turnout is expected in the pro-independence demonstrations called by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), spearhead of the process.
In this line of wear of the independence movement, the Catalan News Agency – a regional public – collected, this Tuesday, the data of the barometers of the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO) of the Generalitat regarding the question of the Catalan feeling. . Spanish of the citizens of the community in the period 2014-2024. According to some media, the percentage of people who feel Only the Catalans went from 29.1% to 18%, Young people (aged 18 to 24) were the ones who most rejected this assessment (from 29.3% to 11.4%).
