The post-pandemic crisis, the war in Ukraine, runaway inflation and an unprecedented spike in supply prices. The world is in turmoil, very turbulent, and little could Pere Aragonès imagine when he took office as president of the Generalitat a year ago, in the midst of the covid pandemic, that the situation could get even more complicated.
But it is not only the geopolitical and economic situation, it is also the internal noise within a coalition government, although both the president and vice president Jordi Puigneró, at the press conference offered this afternoon to take stock of their first year, did not make any mention. Attempt to show good harmony and no reference to the basic differences that often separate them.
Relations with Junts, despite them, also leave a mark on the Government's management, which in this first year has achieved a satisfactory 34% compliance with the action plan. The expansion of the El Prat airport, the negotiations for the budgets, the hesitant steps in the candidacy for the Winter Games or the dialogue table are some examples of the most resounding discrepancies between the partners.
But none of that was discussed today. The quarrels have been left aside, although there are very different nuances in the speeches of president and vice president.
For Puigneró, beyond the global challenges, what slows down the work of the Government is the repression of the Government of Pedro Sánchez staged in the espionage of the independentistas, the sentence of the Court of Accounts or the offensive against Catalan. While Aragonès, who is also critical of the immobility of the central Executive and the distrust that Pegasus has generated, is more conciliatory and maintains his commitment to dialogue.
The president poses the action of the government as the bases of change for a new stage. "We are optimistic, he says. A new cycle in which the institutionality of the Generalitat, lost during Quim Torra's presidency, has been recovered. Relations with Europe have not yet been normalized, but Aragonès' greeting with Ursula Von der Leyen and the visit of the European Commissioner for Culture are a further step.
And another change in the stage mentioned by Aragonès on the great national consensus that, for the first time since the process, have been achieved between the different political groups and that affect the budgets, the renewal of the statutory bodies and perhaps soon the from Catalan.
