MadridThe president of the Generalitat will return to the Hispanic Day events in Madrid on October 12. Salvador Illa will be the first head of the Catalan executive to do so since the time of José Montilla, because all subsequent presidents had refused to participate. He is, therefore, once again a socialist who recovers tradition, as he himself already did with the visit to the king. Executive sources explain that all of this is part of the “institutional normalcy” that the new PSC government wants to recover after years of political tension.
The Hispanic Day has been characterized in the last decade by bringing together practically all the regional presidents in Madrid, alongside the Spanish government and the opposition and also the royal house, the army and the most relevant institutions of the state There have been, however, two prominent recurring absences: that of the president of the Generalitat and that of the lehendakari. The victory of the PSC in the elections of May 12 and the investiture agreement with ERC and the commons to make Illa president change this dynamic in the Catalan case. It is not expected, however, that the head of the Basque executive, Imanol Pradales, will be in Madrid on Saturday.
Before Montilla, who participated in the 2007 and 2010 editions, Pasqual Maragall became in 2004 the first president of the Generalitat to attend the military parade, despite criticism from his two government partners, ERC and ICV . Jordi Pujol never attended the parade, but he did attend the reception of the kings of Spain.
