The leader of the Catalan Socialist (PSC) party, Salvador Illa, was finally elected as Catalan president on Thursday evening, after an eventful day in and around the Catalan Parliament.
Spain’s former health minister and a close ally of socialist (PSOE) Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Illa was elected president with 68 votes in favour in Catalonia’s 135-seat parliament – 42 from his own PSC party, 20 after gaining the support of pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC), and six more from the left-wing Comuns Sumar group. ALSO READ: Pro-independence ERC party backs socialists to form government in Catalonia.
The investiture debate took place amid uncertainty surrounding the whereabouts of former president and fugitive Carles Puigdemont, who returned to Barcelona in the morning, gave a speech, and then fled again instead of trying to enter the parliament and facing arrest, as was widely expected. Spanish media has reported that he is now back in Belgium ALSO READ: Catalan police fail to detain Puigdemont, despite him giving public speech in Barcelona.
During the day, Puigdemont’s hardline pro-independence party, Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), twice asked for the investiture debate to be suspended, but their request was rejected.
During his investiture speech, Illa called for the amnesty law to be applied ‘quickly and without deceit’ in order to ‘fully achieve normalisation in Catalonia.’ ALSO READ: Controversial Catalan amnesty law gets final approval in Spanish Congress.
Illa’s investiture marks a new era for Catalan politics. The socialist is the first president in favour of Spanish unity since 2010, while the regional parliament no longer has a pro-independence majority as it has for many years.
Illa said that during his time in government, he intends to ‘move forward and leave the past behind’ from the years of pro-independence governments. ALSO READ: Catalan pro-independence parties lose majority, as PSC socialists win elections.
Illa had been Spain’s health minister from 2020 to 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. He began his political career as a councillor in La Roca del Vallès in 1987. He became mayor of the town in 1999 and stepped down in 2005.
He also worked at the Department of Justice of the Catalan Government and on the Economic Office of Barcelona’s City Council.
Click here for all our reports related to Catalan independence.
Catalans i catalanes: em poso a la vostra disposició.
He vingut a servir la Catalunya de tothom. pic.twitter.com/466i3vDSgg
— Salvador Illa Roca/❤️ (@salvadorilla) August 8, 2024
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