Junts calls Illa's Government "very bad" and demands changes: "Illa is the first president of Catalonia who does not defend the interests of Catalans"

Salvador Vergés, spokesperson for Junts in the Catalan Parliament, has asked the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, that when the new political course begins in September, he apply "surgery" in key areas of his Government, given a management which he considers to be "very bad."

In an interview with EFE, Vergés has marked Illa's Government with a "fail," stating that "every two months a professional or social group has rebelled against his policies." Up to "twelve groups" have demonstrated or gone on strike in Illa's first two years in office, including, as he listed, firefighters, teachers, farmers, fishermen, librarians, doctors, rural agents, and Rodalies users. "They are very bad at governing and managing. If they were in any company, they would have been fired or replaced. They called themselves the ones with good management, but the facts have shown that there is no good management at all," he reaffirmed.

For this reason, he sees it necessary to make changes in the Government when the new political course begins: "If Illa wants to have minimal credibility, it is an absolutely necessary condition, although not sufficient, that he carry out a thorough reshuffle of his government." "What this government needs is surgery, a deep reshuffle of the different departments," he stressed. Vergés also assessed the first half of the legislature. He accused Illa of being "absolutely subordinate" and showing himself "submissive to the orders of the PSOE" and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. "Illa is the first president of Catalonia who does not defend the interests of Catalans at all," he concluded.

The three ministers in the spotlight

In his opinion, the priority is to replace the three ministers whose dismissal the Parliament requested: Esther Niubó (Education), Núria Parlon (Interior), and Sílvia Paneque (Territory, Housing, and Ecological Transition). He criticized Niubó for the management of crises such as teacher strikes or the PISA test fiasco, while he reproached Parlon for the police "infiltration" in teacher assemblies and the increasingly frequent "shootings" in Catalonia. Finally, he accused Paneque of wanting to cover "with excessive ambition" a macro-department in which it is "impossible" to manage all these issues "adequately," which is why she accumulates "crises" in Rodalies, on the AP-7, and in housing.