The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has lashed out at the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for having asked the unions this week to call off the general strike of 11N motivated by the Urda rail accident. “It seems to me a moral low point to use the 69 victims of Urda to ask that it not be called,” he said.
In an interview granted to 'Eldiario.es' and picked up by Europa Press this Sunday, he asserted that the strike is a fundamental right that can be shared “more or less, but that organizations exercise legitimately.”
“This strike is a sign that there is a problem and a priority to which democratic institutions must provide an answer. They are not asking us for miracles or that we solve it tomorrow, but that we work to resolve it,” he emphasized, referring to the issue of housing. He defended that the implementation of the housing law in Catalonia is producing results and that it is necessary to let it continue to be rolled out.
Forecast for the 29N and consequences of the Urda accident
Questioned about the general elections of 29N, Illa predicted that the PSOE will prevail at the polls and will be able to form an Executive that, in his words, represents “plural and diverse” Spain.
Regarding the impact of the Urda accident, he insisted that it is a tragedy and that the election campaign must resume gradually and with the utmost respect. He defended that the causes of the incident must be analyzed calmly and he advocated studying how to “minimize the human factor in decision-making.”
“These are the elections in which we decide between democratic institutions and authoritarianism, between continuing to move forward or an involution, between taking care of those things that concern ordinary people or being guided by the interests of what I call big money,” he said.
Along these lines, Illa has invited people to look at the recent electoral appointments in Brazil and the United States as a reference, and he has asserted that in Catalonia “it has always been committed to democracy and authoritarianism has been curbed.”
Reference to the 'Koldo case' and criticism of the PP
The president also addressed the alleged offer by the PP to the former ministerial adviser Koldo García and he insisted that it is essential to get “to the bottom of the matter” and “to know the whole truth.”
"Buying witnesses to discredit a political formation or a leader, as it has been intended to do, if it is shown that this has been the case, and it seems that the information points in that direction, entails a direct attack on democracy and an alteration of the rules of the game. I take it very seriously. It seems like very worrying news," he has ruled.