It took two days for the former Minister of Health Salvador Illa to abruptly change the score: the lyrics and music of his speeches began to remind those of the Catalan independentists, aware that no matter how good their electoral result is, their fate will depend of what the coup leader Oriol Junqueras says. In a meeting this Thursday with representatives of the economic and social world of Catalonia, the candidate of the PSC has presented his roadmap in the case of reaching the Generalitat and has committed, in case of reaching the Presidency of the Catalan Government, that his priority will be “to approve a National Plan for the reconstruction of the health system in Catalonia.” If national comes from nation, the expression does not offer many doubts.
Already in a promotional video released last week by the PSC, on the occasion of Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president, Illa pointed out that the arrival of the North American leader would be a factor of «very important hope for the Spanish and for the Catalans, clearly differentiating one from the other.
Note how Illa slowly slides towards the independence rhetoric, assuming the language of the coup groups. All an indicative sign that his campaign is going to build bridges with formations like ERC, in part because he cannot afford to anger them too much. If he did, the one who would suffer in his flesh the reaction of the Catalan republican independentistas would be his boss, Pedro Sánchez, who is in La Moncloa thanks to Oriol Junqueras. “The National Plan for the reconstruction of the health system in Catalonia” is a way like any other to buy the coup its language, in the same way that distinguishing the Spanish from the Catalans is a concession to separatism.
Illa affirms that his challenge is to turn the page of the independence process, but the future of Illa, like that of Pedro Sánchez, inevitably passes through an agreement with ERC, so turning the page of the independence process sounds like a mere rhetorical exercise. And as for rhetoric, with each passing day their expressions sound more like ‘indepe’ rhetoric.
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