"Maximum speed". Pere Aragonès proposed to put the turbo on when it came to redoing the Government. It only took two days. As many as seven departments had to be renewed by the president of the Generalitat after the councilors of Junts left their positions after consultation with the militancy of their party. The head of the Government has taken the same time as Pasqual Maragall in 2006, when he dismissed six ERC councilors and replaced them with three people linked to the PSC. The Republican has added seven more profiles to his ERC councillors: Natàlia Mas (Economy and Finance), Meritxell Serret (Foreign Action), Juli Fernàndez (Territory), Manel Balcells (Health), Gemma Ubasart (Justice, Law and Memory), Carles Campuzano (Social Rights) and Joaquim Nadal (Research and Universities).
All of them will accompany the members of the ERC Government who occupy seats in the Executive Council from May 2021 together with Pere Aragonès: Laura Vilagrà (President), Roger Torrent (Business), Tània Verge (Equality and Feminism), Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray (Education), Teresa Jordà (Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda), Joan Ignasi Elena (Interior) and Natàlia Garriga (Culture).
In the new configuration, the figure of vice president, which until two weeks ago was held by Jordi Puigneró (JxCat), disappears. The position disappears, but the Government assures that Vilagrà was already assuming duties as vice-president. The Minister of the Presidency will also be in charge of the Center for Telecommunications and Information Technologies (CTTI), previously linked to the Ministry of Digital Policies, which was also in the hands of Puigneró. In fact, it stays with the bulk of Digital Policies. A small part is derived from Empresa, led by Roger Torrent. The leader will assume other new areas, such as the coordination of the Government, the management of all the delegations of the Catalan Executive in Catalonia and the field of electoral processes. For her part, Natàlia Mas becomes the first woman to serve as Minister of Economy in Catalonia.
Some of the new signings have an unequivocal convergent and socialist origin. This is the case of Campuzano, who was in the ranks of the CDC and the PDECat; Nadal, for many years, in the PSC. There are also signings from the orbit of the commons: Gemma Ubasart, former general secretary of Podemos in Catalonia. Thus, Aragonès has fished from all of them. The new councilors will take office on Tuesday at nine in the morning. Right after, the meeting of the Consell Executiu will be held, the first with all its members appointed by Esquerra and without JxCat. In the afternoon, the transfer of portfolios from the previous ministers, from Junts, to those of the newly incorporated is planned. Aragonès, in a tweet has highlighted that the new Government "will represent the consensus of 80% of the citizenry".
Esquerra got down to work on Friday afternoon as soon as he learned of Junts' decision to leave the Government, although the president had foreseen this scenario and already had some names in the chamber for a few days. Among his councilors there will be none from the commons. In any case, it was not an option that En Comú Podem had seriously considered. Jéssica Albiach, leader of the parliamentary group, already expressed this Saturday that "a progressive majority" should be guaranteed in Catalonia, but "parliamentary".
The ERC Government alone now has a major challenge: sustain its policies with only the guaranteed support of 33 Republican deputies in Parliament. It will also have immediate challenges, such as approving the 2023 budget, which was prepared by the previous Minister of Economy and in the ranks of JxCat, Jaume Giró. In this regard, Oriol Junqueras, leader of Esquerra, made it clear on Saturday that he completely closes the doors to agreements with the PSC. And he threw a dart at the postconvergents: “If one day there are possible parliamentary majorities, because those who have prepared the budgets [Junts and the Ministry of Economy] are willing to vote for them, then there will be budgets; and if there are no possible budget majorities because those who have drawn them up now do not want to vote for them, (...) there is a scenario called an extension”.
One of the outstanding designations is that of Joaquim Nadal (Girona, 1948). He will occupy the Ministry of Research and Universities in place of Gemma Geis. With extensive political experience, he was mayor of Girona from 1979 to 2002 and deputy in Parliament for the PSC from 1984 to 2012. Nadal assumed positions in the Palau de la Generalitat both in the tripartite of Pasqual Maragall and in that of José Montilla. With the former, he was councilor for Territorial Policy and Public Works, as well as spokesperson and assuming for a few months the Ministry of the Presidency, after Maragall dismissed the six councilors of ERC and abolished the figure of the first councillor. With Montilla, Nadal stayed with the first of the departments.
