The former councilors of the Catalan Executive Junts: Jordi Puigneró, Jaume Giró, Victòria Alsina, Josep Maria Argimon, Lourdes Ciuró, Gemma Geis and Violant Cervera.
The divorce between Esquerra Republicana and Junts per Catalunya meant that 114 high-level positions appointed by this second formation (mainly militants) left the Catalan executive. The final balance is known four months after Laura Borràs left the government, the time taken by the Generalitat to update its list of trusts and which hangs on the portal of the public function. Only 22 appointments, made by junts with a very technical profile at the time, were retained in the monochromatic government chaired by Pere Aragonès.
As of September 2022 (the government crisis was in October), the Generalitat had 369 positions of trust, including directors, directors and general secretaries, and other temporary posts (e.g. advisers or press officers). To this number we should also add that of the owners of the public sector companies of the Generalitat. Esquerra and Junts had the responsibility halved and more than half of the positions high responsibility, an annual income of more than 85,000 euros gross.
Comparing this list with the one published last February (the first update since the break-up of the pro-independence coalition) shows the real impact of the change. A total of 114 senior officials from the seven ministries the junts held (vice presidency, foreign affairs, health, economy, social rights, justice and universities) will disappear from the senior officials list. Some submitted their voluntary resignation and others were dismissed outright from office after 55.7% of Borràs’ party members voted to leave the executive branch in response to Vice President Jordi Puigneró’s sacking and Aragonès’ violations in the pro-independence section of the government pact.
ERC has practically swept away the structures of the neo-converged ministries. One of the exceptions was the universities and innovation department, which is now headed by former socialist leader Joaquim Nadal. There are four of the 22 names that have been ratified by Aragonès, although they have been named by Junts. This is the case, for example, of Xavier Aldeguer, director general of the knowledge society; Maria Victòria Girona, Director General of Universities; Joan Gómez Pallarés, Head of Research and Head of Services, Pilar Sorribas.
The comparison cannot be accurate as the monochromatic ERC board changed the internal structure of several departments to leave its mark and reduced trust positions by 17. This increases the item to cover these salaries from EUR 30.4 million to EUR 29.4 million. The difference reflects not only the extent of the junts’ loss of power in the executive branch, but also the decline in their income, since the party has as one of its sources of funding a percentage of the salaries each militant pays monthly for holding office in the structure of the Generalitat. Logically, this income went into the coffers of the Republicans.
The list also makes it possible to know the seniority of many high positions in the Generalitat. A total of 36 began their terms before the start of the mandate resulting from the February 14, 2021 elections. This group includes not only those responsible for the offices of the former district presidents, but also experienced key officials in the operation of the administrative machine. Such is the case of Josep Maria Sánchez, Director of Finance, Insurance and Treasury Policy, who has been in office since January 2015. In other words, he has held this post since the Artur Mas administration.
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In a similar situation is Josep Vidal Fàbrega, who has been Director General of Social Economy since the days when Carles Puigdemont was at the head of government (2016). The council with the highest leadership positions in the executive structure is Climate Action. According to the February list, the senior manager’s senior position is José Luis García, legal adviser to the Ministry of Finance. There she landed in 2004 with the tripartite PSC-ERC-Iniciativa and the socialist Antoni Castells at the head of the economic department. Since then, five Council members have ratified it.
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