Politics is often a tricky business. The president of the Generalitat must think something like this, Salvador Illaafter the controversy raised by his visit, last Sunday, to an event in Sabadell (Barcelona) to promote Jaén olive oil. Junts, ERC and the CUP attacked the Catalan president for promoting a product in direct competition with that of Catalan farmers. The opportunity to once again denounce Illa’s “Spanishness”.
It is an honor to host the Festa del Primer Oli de Jaén. Catalonia and Andalusia maintain close ties. It is not us who are the Andalusians and the Andalusians who will come to Catalonia to contribute to its progress. Thanks to the President of the Provincial Council of Jaén, @pacoreyesm,… pic.twitter.com/bt3cz5JlOD
– Salvador Illa Roca (@salvadorilla) November 17, 2024
Coinciding with an institutional visit to the City Hall of Sabadell, Illa took the opportunity to participate in the promotional event organized by the Provincial Delegation of Jañen. “It is an honor to host the First Jaén Oil Festival. Catalonia and Andalusia maintain close ties. Today, we would not be what we are without the Andalusians who came to Catalonia to contribute to its progress. Thanks to the president of the Provincial Council of Jaén, Francisco Reyes, for this initiative”, explained Illa himself in X.
After some time, the government itself, in its official statement, cited Illa’s words. “It’s a great idea to get out and talk about things. I will also do it with Catalonia. I will travel across Spain to tell and listen. This allows undo the clichés it hurts so much,” said the Catalan president, hinting at his intention, in the coming months, to tour the rest of the regions to, among other things, try to explain his proposal for new “singular financing.”
The explanations were not valid considering the number of social media users who hastily attacked Illa. Also politics. The first, the former president Carles Puigdemontalways aware of generational change. “All this doesn’t happen without reason. It is the Hispanicizing agenda of the PSC government that we denounced during the electoral campaign,” he adds.
Menystenir, the effort that Catalan producers are making to compete and maintain life in a globalized and demanding market is a major error, in addition to being an offense to families who hate maintaining their activity and ensuring generational regeneration. This is such a mistake… https://t.co/Ev1Ie36wdF
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) November 17, 2024
“Catalan oil producers produce a product of excellence with great effort. They need a president of the Generalitat and a government that supports them, not only promote competition. The problem is that Catalonia has a president more concerned with pleasing Spain and the PSOE than defending Catalonia,” added the secretary general of Junts.
“In our country, our oil producers have practically disappeared. If you want them farmers of oil in Catalonia have a minimum of possibilities, perhaps I should start accompanying them to their promotional fairs and ensure the risk that this can give in the future”, declared the general secretary of ERC, Marta Vilalta, in reference to the oil fair! That same weekend it took place in Maials (Lleida).
The CUP also intervened in this matter from an anti-owner perspective: “We have oil from Siurana, Garrigues, Terres de l’Ebre and Empordà, but the President of Catalonia is committed to promoting oil from Andalusian owners “which directly compete with our peasantry.”
