Salvador Illa Navigates His Second Crisis With a Divided Opposition

Salvador Illa requested to appear voluntarily in Parliament this Tuesday to account for the power outage on April 28. This is the second crisis his government faces, following the chaos in Rodalies. This time the pro-separatism parties, each in their own way, have once again spared the President from trouble.

Illa's pro-separatism partners have avoided a direct criticism of the Govern and have directed all their energies against the right and nuclear power. Junts did want to show a tough tone. But instead of challenging the executive's energy strategy, they focused their criticisms on the lack of leadership and communication.

The rest of the right (PP, Vox, and Aliança Catalana) did focus their criticisms on the PSC's energy policy and the Catalan left. This division between Junts and the rest of the right contrasts with the increasingly robust unity of the left, from the PSC to the CUP. This weakens the opposition and favors the PSC's minority government.

Junts, a Containment Barrier for PSC

It is clear that Junts doesn't want to be seen in the same group as PP, Vox, and AC, and this conditions their parliamentary action in Catalonia. But this is creating an increasingly evident contradiction. 

Parliament is becoming ideologically polarized, with a PSC dragged by the CUP and the Comuns against a right increasingly leaning to the extreme. In this situation, hesitations are a handicap that condemns Junts to isolation. They neither have enough strength to pressure Illa, nor do they serve to strengthen an opposition that puts him against the ropes. 

Junts has become a party that one day defends tax cuts and entrepreneurs, and the next day Catalan courses for radical imams. Added to this is the lack of strong and visible leadership. In practice, it has become a containment barrier for the PSC against the onslaughts of the right.

The Left, Increasingly United

The division has manifested again in this Wednesday's plenary session. While Vox and Aliança Catalana have pressured the government over police assaults, Junts has talked about espionage on the separatism movement. 

The intervention of Albert Batet in a pro-separatism key has contrasted with that of Alejandro Fernández (PP) against pro-separatism censorship in universities. This highlights the division of the opposition between the pro-separatism right (Junts), the constitutionalist right (PP), and the radical right (Vox and AC). This prevents a unified action against Illa's government.

The proof of Junts's weakness is that they asked for resignations from Illa over the outage, but without conviction or the ability to force them. The same goes for the rest of the opposition, which beyond criticism did not put the Govern against the ropes.

Illa can breathe easy for now, as he has been able to weather the two crises (Rodalies and the outage) with the support of his partners and in the face of a divided opposition. While the right is divided, the left is increasingly united. ERC and Comuns have shown that they will support Illa no matter what, because they have much to lose and little to gain with his fall.