Salvador Illa, elected president with the support of the left-wing forces in Parliament, has never hidden his desire to please the Catalan business community. Already leader of the opposition, the first secretary of the PSC has established good relations with the employers’ associations, presenting himself as the candidate of stability, and now, in the month and a half that he has been in the Palau de la Generalitat, he has accumulated various concessions to the private sector.
With the negotiation of a single financing as one of the main challenges of the legislature, which satisfies the Catalan economic actors, the Government of Illa has placed the expansion of the Prat airport as a high priority. To this must be added the appointment of senior officials to manage the water linked to the Agbar company or the precaution taken against measures that could harm the charter school.
Illa’s intention is to make the PSC a hegemonic force in Catalonia, capable of satisfying left-wing and centrist voters, and this image of transversality is what he wants to project as president. Without going any further, last week began for him with a meeting with Jordi Pujol, in which he did not spare his praise for the former president, continued with meetings in Madrid with Felipe VI and major businessmen, and ended with the Catalan Socialists’ Rose Festival, among calls to form broad left-wing coalitions.
The nods to the business world are also mixed with those to the space of the old CiU, that of moderate Catalanism. In this regard, the meeting with Pujol is just one example among others, like the appointment of Miquel Sàmper – former city councilor of Junts – to lead the relationship with the businessmen of the Ministry of Enterprise and Labor. Before a delegation of high-level businessmen in Madrid, as revealed by La Vanguardia, Illa went so far as to assure that he had tried to prioritize an investiture agreement with Junts before with ERC and Comuns.
The airport and other infrastructure
After a summer with a record number of passengers at El Prat airport and on the verge of surpassing the 52 million users of 2019, Illa has between an eyebrow and an eyebrow to carry out its expansion, which it has been defending since Aena put it on the table in 2021. president He assures that it is necessary to improve international connections from the Catalan capital to promote economic activity, outside of tourism, and for this he has the enthusiastic support of the Catalan employers’ association Foment del Treball.
However, everything will depend on whether the technical proposal for its implementation involves an impact on the Ricarda lagoon and what its scope is. For the moment, the Comuns are totally opposed to the project and the ERC would promote it provided that it does not harm the environment. In addition, the European Commission will have the final say, since it is a protected area included in the Natura 2000 network.
The airport is perhaps the most visible improvement that Illa wants to undertake in Catalan infrastructure, which also aims to promote economic dynamism. In terms of energy, the last Executive Council approved a plan to accelerate renewable installations, with measures such as avoiding bureaucracy and reducing processing times, a recurring cause of complaints among investors. He also wants to facilitate offshore wind power, viewed with some suspicion by the previous government, with the Gulf of Roses project.
The other major chapter in which there is also harmony with the private sector is that of water. The two highest appointments in the Generalitat to manage water policy come from the Agbar business group, the main supplier of low-cost water in Catalonia. The new director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) will be Josep Lluís Armenter, until now responsible for the drought coordination plan of Aigües de Barcelona (a subsidiary of the same group). The secretary general of Water Transition, Concha Zorrilla, comes from Veolia, the parent company of Agbar, where she was a senior consultant specializing in waste.
Balance with ERC and Comuns
Illa must cultivate her profile business friendly of his government while respecting the commitments made with ERC and Comuns in the respective investiture pacts. The president has before him a long list of measures agreed with them, ranging from the significant increase in the social housing stock to the advancement of free education from 0 to 3 years. Illa also conceded to the Comuns that he would stop the Hard Rock project, which he defended with such zeal and which derailed the government of Father Aragonès.
In the school environment, some contradictions have already begun to emerge between what has been agreed and what the government is willing to do. In her desire not to open new fronts of controversy, the new Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, is not considering for the moment restoring the sixth hour in public schools. This increase in hours, which would assimilate the public to the agreed one – and which teachers oppose – is part of the socialist electoral program and the pact with the Comuns, but Niubó will let some time pass before putting on the table how to undertake it.
His appearance before the parliamentary committee worried the Comuns because of his good words towards the concerted party. Niubó defended it as part of the public education system and confirmed that, as his predecessor had proposed, the money received by these private schools would increase to accommodate more disadvantaged students. Currently, they receive 988 for each such enrollment, assuming that they cannot afford the fees that other families pay, but the centers consider that this amount is insufficient to cover their costs.
