The time of the incombustible Miquel Iceta as head of the PSC is coming to an end. Salvador Illa's decision to leave the Ministry of Health and accept the Socialist candidacy for the February 14th elections was the first step in the process of a generational change at the head of the PSC, and there is no longer any doubt that in a few months he will become the party’s Secretary General.
Iceta enjoys a luxury retirement at the current Ministry of Culture and Sports. Although it was a backhanded move by Pedro Sánchez's government and the Catalan socialist certainly had other aspirations, the saying "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" came true. Iceta was left without any of the political posts that had been awarded to him, ranging from a vice-presidency to the position of Government spokesperson. The awakening was the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the addition of Sports which, in his case, did not leave him overflowing with joy.
Illa has, if you like, a much steeper and obstacle-strewn path in Catalan politics. He was able to see this for himself after the February 14th elections when, after coming in first place, he was unable to get enough support to form a government. Thus, until the next Catalan elections he will be the head of the opposition in the Catalan Parliament.
Illa has shown that he does not intend to exercise a noisy opposition, devoid of any content, as was the case with Inés Arrimadas of Ciudadanos, nor to give up forging alliances with the Catalan government on issues far removed from the pro-independence agenda. Illa has a tough job ahead of him, as some bridges are broken beyond repair, but he has already learnt that if there is one thing available to him, it is time, as a unionist majority in the Catalan Parliament has not been achieved since 1980. Even in the years when Pasqual Maragall and José Montilla held presidency of the Generalitat for the PSC, between 2003 and 2010, the majority in the Parliament remained nationalist.
Illa has even allowed himself to have a permeable attitude to the decree establishing the Fund of the Generalitat that has to be used to cover the guarantees before the Court of Accounts. An unthinkable attitude in Arrimadas, which has led the Spanish government to put the issue aside while waiting to see what the Spanish solicitor general’s office, which is due to issue a report, will end up doing. These are just gestures, but in politics gestures also count.