Two days after the real investment made by the State in Catalonia was made public -well below budget-, the first meeting between the Government of the Generalitat and ministers of the Spanish Government has been tense. President Pere Aragonès and Vice President Jordi Puigneró met today in Barcelona with the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, to "ask for explanations" and demand compliance with the budget.
The three have coincided in the opening ceremony of the new Google offices in the Catalan capital and, at the end of the event, they have had an impromptu half-hour meeting. The meeting has served to verify, once again, the differences between the two executives, which have been aggravated in recent weeks by the outbreak of the espionage case against the independence leaders.
The atmosphere was already tense after Puigneró himself branded the members of the central government this morning as "either liars or useless." The words of the Catalan vice president, who added that he did not understand why there are not more independence supporters in Catalonia, given the figures published on Monday, have found a reply from Sánchez herself. In Rac1, the minister has asked the members of the Government to avoid comparisons with Madrid, something that "generates tension", and that, in any case, not enter "at such a low level of confrontation". However, the Catalan vice president has later clarified that he was not referring to the socialist minister in particular.
The Catalan president left the meeting with a serious face, and even annoyed and, when asked by journalists, he limited himself to ensuring that "it is time for compliance and not for words". Neither the minister nor the vice president and councilor for Digital Policies and Territory, Jordi Puigneró, have made statements after the meeting, which had been requested by Aragonès from the minister before starting the Google event.
For their part, sources from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda have indicated that the meeting addressed the importance of reinforcing collaboration between the two administrations to boost the pace of execution of infrastructures in Catalonia. In this sense, the minister highlighted the investment effort of the central government in Catalonia, where more than 3,700 million euros have been executed since June 2018, "the highest investment figure in all of Spain".
In addition, it has conveyed to the president the central Executive's commitment to Catalan society and the next meeting of the Infrastructure Monitoring Commission has been agreed, to analyze jointly, and project by project, the situation of the execution of the infrastructures in Catalonia. This table will serve to advance in the promotion of investments, overcome existing difficulties and accelerate the development of works in progress, according to the same sources.
Lastly, the minister has reiterated that dialogue and encounter and serene and calm reflection within the framework of institutional loyalty is the only way to guarantee stability and the execution of policies at the service of citizens.
For their part, sources from the presidency of the Generalitat have assured that Aragonès has considered the explanations received from the minister to be "insufficient" and that he has transmitted the Government's demand for "rapid compliance" with the agreed investments of the State in Catalonia .
The request for explanations to the Government comes after learning this week that the State executed last year in Catalonia 35.77% of the investment planned in the budget, that is, 739.8 million out of a total of 2,068 million planned, while that the Community of Madrid achieved an execution of 183.9%, receiving 952 million more than budgeted.
In a previous act on FP held in Barcelona, the Catalan president had already branded these budget execution data as "inadmissible", which represent "a drag" on the competitiveness of the economy in Catalonia.
