The electoral calendar imposes new rules on the political game and changes the relationship between the government and the Generalitat. The photos of gestures of complicity and handshakes will be shelved until the municipal elections are over and the gatherings find their way in the shadows, with no official calls and no spotlights. The Catalan government insists that there is “no normality” in the relationship it has with Pedro Sánchez’s executive, but that there is a need to hold recurring meetings to discuss labor issues affecting the two administrations. As part of the new context, President Aragonès and Presidency Minister Félix Bolaños held a meeting in Barcelona on Thursday to discuss general administrative issues between the two governments. “It was a private meeting and it was left to him that he did not want to explain himself,” stress Generalitat sources, in order to counteract the reservations with which the appointment took place. Just this week, the spokeswoman for the Catalan government, Patrícia Plaja, issued a statement showing that the Generalitat takes it for granted that there will be no new meeting of the dialogue table between the Generalitat and the government in the coming months. “Institutional normality,” replies La Moncloa.
The meeting announced by La Vanguardia this Thursday between Bolaños and Aragonès took advantage of a visit by the minister to Barcelona. The government does not give details of a meeting held far from the Palau de la Generalitat, which lasted just over an hour. “There was nothing to announce,” they refer from the Generalitat to argue the discretion with which the appointment was made. “We have to have a relationship because there are issues that need to be dealt with, but there isn’t a normal relationship between the two governments,” says those around Aragonès.
Government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez explained in an interview on RTVE that there is currently a “normalization relationship” between the administrations. La Moncloa already insists that the meeting is further evidence that “institutional normality” has also been restored to inter-administrative relations. The executive thus indicates that no agreement or concrete measure has been concluded.
Esquerra has found a key ally in the PSC to approve the Generalitat’s budgets for 2023, but in order to approve the accounts, the Catalan socialists have tabled a list of infrastructure-related demands. In some cases, these are shared management issues, such as the Barcelona ring road, the B-40 or the El Prat airport traffic increase project. The meeting between Aragonès and Bolaños served to lay the groundwork for how these issues should be addressed. On the other hand, little has been said about the scenario that leaves behind the judicial backlash that several indictments by the Esquerra Republicana have recently received. Despite the change in the penal code, the Supreme Court has ruled to have Oriol Junqueras disqualified by 2031 and prosecutors have made public that they want seven years in prison for Josep Maria Jové and six years for Lluís Salvadó, senior leaders of the ERC. for the 1-O.
On Monday, the spokeswoman for the Generalitat said that “the political context does not contribute” to being able to carry out certain scenes between governments. Barely three days later, Aragonès and Bolaños provided the proof and met with blatant obfuscation.
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