The general secretary of Together for Catalonia (Junts), Jordi Turull, has cast doubt on Salvador Illa's proposals to improve the financing and self-government of Catalonia if he is president of the Generalitat after the Catalan election on May 12th. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions", he quipped, adding that the Catalan Socialist (PSC) leader's credibility in this matter is "minus zero", since Illa's time as a minister for the Spanish government coincide with the years when the Spanish state "invested the least money in Catalonia and most invaded its competencies".
Turull expressed "support and affection" from Junts to those who have gone into exile due to the Tsunami case and reproached Illa for not referring to the issue. "He said nothing of this, he only raises his voice to defend the PSOE, never to defend the interests of Catalans," he said. A second wave of independentists has gone into exile due to the National Audience's terrorism investigation against the Democratic Tsunami platform for its role in the protests against the pro-independence leaders' trial verdict. At least seven of the 12 investigated are currently residing outside Catalonia, and four of them have moved in recent months due to the investigation by the National Court.
Jordi Turull (Junts), speaking this Friday: "When Salvador Illa was in Madrid, that coincided with the period when there was least investment in Catalonia, in housing, in infrastructure, in many areas. ... So did Mr Illa serve the citizens of Catalonia? No. What he did was avoid causing discomfort to the Spanish Socialists' Workers Party. You can dress it up as you like, but based on the facts and actions, not on the opinions, then the credibility of Mr Illa is zero."
Meanwhile, the PSC candidate himself has affirmed that the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, agrees with improving autonomous community funding. In an interview this Friday with the Ser Catalunya radio network, Salvador Illa added that he cannot speak for Sánchez, but that the Spanish executive has already said that the issue of autonomous funding "must be resolved". On Thursday, Illa proposed that, if he is president, he will reach a "financing agreement" with the state, which will allow the deployment of the tax consortium provided for in the 2006 Catalan Statute of Autonomy, a measure which, he asserts, has "passed the Constitutional Court's filter" but has never been implemented. The PSC leader emphasized that after the election he will work from whereever he "corresponds", depending on the electoral result. In any case, he stated that he is "in a position" to be able to form a government.
Illa commented that, if he is Catalan president, he "will not spend 30 years deciding where the B-40 or the Fourth Beltway should go", nor "going into circles" over the expansion of Barcelona-El Prat airport. The head of the PSC asserted that "in a month" he will unblock these issues which have divided opinion in Catalonia, and that he will take advantage of his "influence and presence" in Madrid to "correct" this "inertia" of delaying all these debates and decisions.