The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has criticized Junts for claiming to maintain an equidistant position between PP and PSOE ahead of the general elections on November 29.
In the control session of the Govern this Wednesday in the Parlament, Illa addressed the president of Junts in the Chamber, Mònica Sales, questioning that stance: "Equidistant from what? From those who want to cut back the self-government of Catalunya? From those who put Catalan at risk? From those who deny you amnesty?".
Sales rejected the framework proposed by Illa, which presents the 29N as a dilemma between progressivism or regression. In her opinion, "Regression is applauding the blows of 1-O, it is voting in favor of 155, it is saying that it should have been applied earlier, it is demonstrating with Societat Civil Catalana and it is fighting against amnesty until they needed the votes of Junts".
In his reply, Illa defended that in politics there are moments when one must rise to the occasion: "And if one is, one is; and if one is not, one is not; what do you want me to say," he pointed out, warning that it will be the citizens who evaluate these positions at the polls.
Criticism from the PP on housing, infrastructure, and education
The president of the PP of Catalunya, Alejandro Fernández, took advantage of his turn to question to doubt that Pedro Sánchez's mandate has been beneficial for Catalunya: "It is evident that for Puigdemont and Junqueras it is, but for the ordinary Catalans, it is evident that it is not".
Fernández accused the central Executive and Illa's Govern of having caused the "collapse" of the housing market, trains, and roads in Catalunya, and denounced a deterioration in educational quality, in addition to claiming that the territory has become, according to him, a refuge for squatters and repeat offenders.
Illa replied that the popular party has been "out of coverage for a long time" regarding the Catalan reality, and criticized the PP for its opposition to the official status of Catalan in the EU and its stance against the Catalan school model.
Debate on linguistic immersion in Catalan
The CUP focused its intervention on the PP's proposal regarding teaching in Catalan and demanded that Illa specify what he plans to do to "protect" linguistic immersion if PP and Vox come to power and adopt measures against this educational model.
The anti-capitalist formation has also reproached that, with the socialists in the Govern, initiatives aimed at reinforcing immersion have been rejected: "Who governs now is you, and who blocked with PP and Vox the debate of a law to safeguard immersion was your group. You cannot use this threat from the right to ask for support while blocking the tools to defend ourselves."
Before the hemicycle, Illa has reiterated his commitment to the Catalan language: "Catalan is not touched and the model of Catalan school is an effective model that coheses Catalan society and that the Govern will defend."
Guaranteeing the future of pensions
The president of the PSC-Units group, Ferran Pedret, has focused his question on the public pension system, claiming that socialist governments "have guaranteed" both its revaluation and the sustainability of the model.
Pedret has lamented that "some spokespersons of the PP-Vox consortium and also Aliança Catalana" question the viability of the system and has suggested that they do so because they have economic interests linked to this area.
Illa has defended that the "doubts about a system that is solvent" are unfounded and has committed to protecting public pensions against capitalization schemes that, as he has emphasized, have not yielded good results where they have been implemented.
Clash with Aliança Catalana over freedom of expression and pensions
In her turn, the leader of AC, Sílvia Orriols, has assured that her formation is "the only one that does not curtail freedom of expression" in the Parlament and has warned that social networks "are full of people from Morocco asking for votes in favor of PSOE."
Illa has responded by accusing Orriols of demagoguery, bad manners, ignorance, and provocation, and of dedicating herself to fueling hatred in Catalunya. He has also reproached her for her statements about the pension system: "You say it is a pyramid scheme. The scam is you."