The delicate negotiation of the new system of regional financing by the Generalitat will fall to one of the most trusted people of the new president, Salvador Illa. Alícia Romero (Caldes d’Estrac, Barcelona, 1976), current spokesperson for the PSC group in the Parliament and right-hand man of the president, will be the new Minister of Economy and Finance of the Generalitat, one of the most responsible positions in the new organisational chart. Romero has been one of the key figures in the negotiation between the PSC and Esquerra and has served as head of economic issues for her party in the Parliament of Catalonia. Núria Parlon has also been confirmed as Minister of Interior and Security, according to sources from the Generalitat, which makes her the linchpin of the transformation of the Police force.
A graduate in Law and Business Administration, Romero worked at the defunct Caixa Laietana, now part of La Caixa, but since 1999 – she has been a member of the PSC since 1996 – she has been involved in active politics, when she joined the Mataró City Council as a councillor and became deputy mayor in 2005. She arrived in Parliament in 2012, where she stood out for her role in the Economic Commission until she took on greater responsibility in the group in the last legislature. After Illa’s arrival in Parliament, already the first secretary of the party, Romero, who was number two on the 12-M candidacy, gradually gained relevance, although she had already been holding the Economic portfolio for years.
The deputy led the PSC’s budget agreement with ERC for the 2023 accounts; and also those for this year, which foundered after the decision of the Commons to reject the budgets. Always key in the negotiations, Romero knows perfectly well the tasks she will have to undertake in this new stage as a minister because she has audited the successive economic teams of the last Catalan governments and because she knows in detail the negotiations and agreements between the PSC and ERC that have allowed Illa’s investiture.
In the short term, the question is whether the PSC will take a step forward, adopt the text of the Budgets for 2024 that ERC prepared and make them its own to bring them to approval in the first part of its mandate, even if they are only effective for a few months. It would be a way of showing that the socialists do not want to make any counter-reform to Aragonès’ government action and take advantage of what are perceived to be one of the last expansionist budgets of the Generalitat.
Núria Parlon, the future interior minister of Salvador Illa. David Zorrakino (Europa Press)
Also in the short term – it will have less than twelve months to do so – it will have to overcome a central issue of what this legislature will be like if the PSC wants to continue counting on the support of ERC and the Comunes: to implement the proposal for Catalonia to have a unique financing model with the scheme of its development and, above all, to establish the formula so that from 2026 the Generalitat has the capacity to collect income tax.
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Both issues will have to be developed in collaboration with ERC and the Ministry of Finance, with the opposition of the regional leaders of the PSOE and the PP. Its execution is unknown, since it is a last-minute assumption by the socialists. Likewise, the Department of Economy and Finance will be responsible for negotiating with the Government to forgive the 15 billion euros of debt of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund, which Pedro Sánchez promised to do in November.
In the day-to-day of his administration he also has other tasks: promoting the reform of the Catalan section of the IRPF (until it can be fully managed by the Generalitat) to reduce the tax on those with incomes below 35,000 euros, activating budget items to build 50,000 homes (he will have to seek funds in Europe) and an amendment to the PSC’s policy up to now: raising taxes on gambling from 10% to 55% to make the Hard Rock macro-casino in Salou impossible.
Illa is finalising the composition of his cabinet, of which three councillors are known so far: Romero’s; the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, manager of the Barcelona City Council and right-hand man of Mayor Jaume Collboni; and the Interior, Núria Parlon. The current mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and spokesperson for the party will assume this portfolio, which will be called Interior and Security and which takes on special relevance after the failure of the deployment of the Mossos d’Esquadra to arrest former president Carles Puigdemot on Thursday. A lover of security issues, Parlón has distinguished herself in her municipality, where she has chained absolute majorities, by giving this area a special relevance. Her plan is to promote Major José Luis Trapero, now removed from the top. In addition to these three appointments, two others have been revealed: Javier Villamayor, until now general coordinator of the Provincial Council, will be secretary of the Government; and Eduard Rivas, mayor of Esparraguera, chief of staff to the president.
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