The leader of the PP in Catalonia emulates Milei and asks Illa to use “the chainsaw” to slim down the Generalitat

“He maintains duplicate bodies, now he comes out with study groups. More spending, more waste. The Generalitat also needs a chainsaw . It needs it now.” The leader of the PP in the Parliament, Alejandro Fernández, has rescued this Wednesday the most iconic image of the ultra-liberal Argentine president, Javier Milei, to criticize President Salvador Illa during the control session in the Parliament. The socialist leader has described the allusion as unfortunate and, taking advantage of the complicated position of the PP in the face of the removal of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA), has asked him to help him cut, yes, but the debt of the Generalitat with the central Government.

Fernández used his question to the head of the Government to find out how many duplicate bodies he had closed after his arrival to the presidency. And to accuse him of inaction, he reminded him of a report commissioned in 2021 by the PSC to Francesc Trillas , current Secretary of Economic Affairs of the Generalitat, in which the superfluous spending in the Generalitat was criticised and described what he considered to be areas of clear clientelist use by the parties in power. Trilla quantified the superfluous and “propaganda” spending of the Generalitat at 1.1 billion. “The report is so good that it could be from the PP,” Fernández insisted before asking Illa to bring out the chainsaw. “Or the axe, in a more appropriate expression,” he added.

Illa has described the use of the metaphor and what it evokes as “unfortunate”, referring to the image of Milei boasting about cutting public services in the electoral campaign: Get out!, he said in a video while throwing posters with the names of ministries to the ground. “Things can be simplified and we can check if there are organisations that can be resized or eliminated. Another thing is to go with a chainsaw or an axe. It is disrespectful to public workers. Do you think that is the way?”, the socialist has asked Fernández. “The only thing that we should cut and you can help us with, is Catalonia's debt [with the FLA agreement], talk to your people and you will help us,” he added.

The socialist leader thus sought to highlight the PP's dilemma regarding the debt write-off arising from the pact between the PSOE and ERC in 2023 but which benefits all the Autonomous Communities and is being voted on this afternoon in the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council. The PP barons will vote against , but the measure will go ahead thanks to the vote of the Generalitat. Illa has taken advantage of the control session to boast about the fruits of the negotiation with the Government, which have crystallized in the agreements reached in the bilateral commissions held this week.

The global cultural war between the far right and the defenders of the welfare state reverberates in the Parliament, far beyond the photo of the owner of X, Elon Musk, giving Milei a chainsaw last Friday in the framework of the Conservative Action Policy Conference held in Washington. After the leader of ERC, Josep María Jové, criticized him for the police deployment in a protest by residents of Santa Coloma de Gramanet (Barcelona) who rejected the transfer of a public space for a Vox event and accused Illa of being less harsh with Vox than with Aliança Catalana. “Despite our political differences, we will always find ourselves committed to putting a stop to this type of attitude,” the president responded.

The spokesperson for Junts, Mònica Sales, has criticised Illa for not sufficiently defending the use of Catalan and, therefore, has accused him of not being a guarantor of the linguistic rights of many Catalans. The same claim was made by Vox, but as if it were the negative of a photograph: “What problem do you have with Catalans speaking whatever they want?” was the question from Ignacio Garriga, the leader of the bench of Santiago Abascal’s party. Garriga has asked Illa to dedicate the expenditure on promoting Catalan to “issues that interest people, housing”. A common thread that has also been used by the deputy of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols, who has also said that while she is “free-thinking”, the president is “the only thought”. "I have budgets, you don't," the mayor of Ripoll took the opportunity to remind him, thus touching on the nerve of the discontent that has been dragging on over Junts' decision to stand up to the other parties in the motion of censure.

Illa has responded to Orriols with a particular attack: the presence of a member of Aliança Catalana on election night of AfD, the far-right party that came second in the elections in Germany. And next to the representative of Vox. “We continue working to bring Catalan reality everywhere. Now, with the second force of the most important party in Europe,” the party posted on X, with a photo. “Europe is the space that will allow us to defend our model of life and freedoms. And here you are with Trump, AfD and against Europe,” Ila has snapped.