Although the Catalan Socialists (PSC) have doubled their quota in the Spanish cabinet and have gone from having Miquel Iceta in charge of public administrations to enjoying two representatives, Iceta himself in the culture portfolio and the former mayor of Gavà, Raquel Sánchez, in the powerful Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, it remains to be seen whether this will have some practical consequence in the influence of the PSC in the Spanish executive and in the solution of the conflict between Catalonia and Spain. Pedro Sánchez has rewarded Salvador Illa with a new face from the PSC for the period ahead and has left him with full charge of two issues that the Catalan Socialists will exploit as much as they can: the proposed new runway at Barcelona's El Prat airport and the Barcelona-Pyrenees bid for the Winter Olympic Games.
Regarding the airport, the key ministry is transport, that of Raquel Sánchez, who, on the eve of her appointment as minister, turned her position inside out like a sock, and went from opposing enlargement to endorsing the concept of a future airport as an example of balance and consensus. In the case of the Olympic Games, two ministries, in addition to the prime minister's department, are decisive: transport again, and culture and sports - just where the incombustible Iceta has landed. The airport and the Olympic Games also have in common their queasiness for the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), which has moved more slowly in its decision-making on the issue as it did not want to be trapped alongside the PSC and Junts, and aligned against the left-wing parties of the Comuns and the CUP. Hence the first parliamentary vote last Thursday in which the two partners of the Catalan government voted differently, with the Winter Olympics proposal as a backdrop.
If the PSC plays its cards well, there is ground to be gained and Illa could consolidate itself as the preferred interlocutor of the Catalan business community in Madrid and to seriously address the historical deficit in infrastructures. It is the first time that the Catalan Socialists will run a ministry which is an investor like no other and, therefore, the opportunity to change the dynamic exists and, with this, give life to the commissions between the Spanish government and that of the Generalitat appropriate to an autonomous community state.
The questions that remains for Pedro Sánchez is still that of how he can get past his stuck record and find elements that he can bring to the negotiating table between the two governments, which must address the political conflict and cannot be about airports and Olympic bids, but rather, amnesty, a referendum and the right to self-determination. This is the real issue and it is the insurmountable wall for which there is not yet any master key that allows us to glimpse a playing field between two positions so far apart. The most that Madrid mentions in an ultimate scenario is far below what Catalonia could consider accepting without it being political suicide for the independence movement.