Junts per Catalunya has delivered a scathing assessment of the PSC government’s performance at the midpoint of its mandate, arguing that Salvador Illa’s leadership has left Catalonia in a worse state than two years ago. Speaking outside the Parliament, Mònica Sales, president of the Junts parliamentary group, accused the regional executive of failing to address fundamental issues, including infrastructure and mobility, as well as housing and education. Sales said the government had been absent when residents needed support most and described its management as marked by systematic incompetence.
Sales argued that the PSC, which campaigned as a guarantee of effective governance after years of independence-focused administrations, has instead presided over growing problems. She pointed to the condition of basic infrastructure, highlighting the Rodalies commuter rail service and the AP-7 motorway, which she called a “permanent bottleneck.” In her view, Rodalies has become unreliable for daily commuters, while congestion on the AP-7 remains unresolved. Sales also criticized the government’s handling of education, warning that the school year was beginning amid labor disputes. She said waiting times for healthcare and dependency support had lengthened.
Rodalies remains a particular political vulnerability for Illa’s government. In an October 2026 interview, the president acknowledged that the service was not operating at the standard Catalans should expect, while saying the network was receiving more investment than ever and that long-neglected investment was now under way. He also pointed to new rolling stock as a source of expected improvement. The exchange captures the competing positions: Junts presents service failures as evidence of government inaction, while Illa says investment and fleet renewal are under way.
Junts has also accused the PSC of prioritizing Madrid’s interests over Catalonia’s, arguing that Illa acts more as a representative of the PSOE in the region than as a defender of Catalan interests in the Spanish capital. Sales said the government’s alignment with Pedro Sánchez’s party had left Catalonia without a strong voice in national negotiations. She cited figures put forward by Junts showing state investment per capita of €162 in Catalonia, compared with €452 in Madrid, as evidence for the party’s claims of neglect.
The dispute extends beyond public services to the wider conflict over Catalonia’s relationship with Madrid. In a 21 October parliamentary control session, Illa challenged Junts’s claim to be politically equidistant from the PSOE and the PP, asking whether it was “equidistant from those who want to cut back Catalonia’s self-government, those who put the Catalan language at risk, and those who deny you amnesty.” He argued that under a government led by the PP and Vox, some pro-independence leaders would not have recovered their political rights. Sales, by contrast, emphasized Junts’s role and its seven votes in Spain’s Congress in securing the amnesty. Both sides claimed credit for the outcome, while disagreeing over the significance of Junts’s bargaining power and the PSC’s role.
The political tensions were also evident in October over the return to Catalonia of former regional councillor and Junts deputy Lluís Puig, after nine years outside the region. Junts criticized Illa for not attending the parliamentary sitting marking Puig’s return. Sales wrote that the occasion was not about asking Illa to share Puig’s views, but about acting as “the president of all Catalans”; she also invoked Illa’s past support for applying Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which removed the Catalan government led by Carles Puigdemont. Illa later met privately with Puig, but the episode showed how arguments about public services remain intertwined with questions of institutional legitimacy and the 2017 independence crisis, including disputes over amnesty.
Sales described Junts as the only real alternative to what she called the “anesthesia” affecting Catalan society, insisting that the region was “falling apart” while Illa remained passive. The debate over the government’s performance echoes wider concerns about public-service delivery and regional investment, issues that have also surfaced elsewhere in Spain. Recent reports, for example, have highlighted how gaps in urgent care for non-Spaniards at Madrid’s Puerta de Hierro hospital have raised questions about the system’s priorities, as seen in cases of foreign patients left waiting for days in emergency wards.
Catalonia’s infrastructure and public services have long been points of contention between regional and national authorities. The Rodalies network has faced chronic delays and maintenance problems, while the AP-7, a major route for local and cross-border traffic, has struggled with congestion since tolls were lifted. Education and healthcare remain politically sensitive, with recurring disputes over funding and staffing, alongside language policy. As the PSC government enters the second half of its term, its response to these challenges, and the balance between new investment and improved services, will remain under close scrutiny from opposition parties and the public.
