The opposition accuses Aragonès of muting the debate by abusing the law decrees
The groups have presented more initiatives than the Executiu in the first months of the legislature
ERC welcomes the Government’s ability not to lose laws and stay the course despite Junts
Far, far away are the times when the Parliament of Catalonia it was the epicenter of Spanish and European politics, with hundreds of accredited journalists. Now it seems that the Catalan Chamber has gone to the other extreme. In the first three periods of the legislature, ten laws have been approved, of which the majority are small modifications of existing laws, while the Government has opted for the fast track through 28 decree laws. The opposition accuses the Executive of Pere Aragones to put the Parliament to idle. ERC defends that the Government does not lose votes and stays the course even despite its Junts partners
Ramon Swordler, on behalf of the group of the main opposition group, PSC-Units per Avançar, underlines with the figures in hand: “We have sent more projects to Parliament than the Government.” He also regrets “an overuse of the decree law, which was partly explained by the pandemic and was the appropriate instrument for unforeseen issues, because they were punctual and urgent changes, but the Government has got the habit and now abuses the decree and this restricts the debate”. In this sense, Espadaler adds that “very few” of the decrees end up being pushed forward as bills. That is, with the possibility of debating the content for weeks in the Chamber.
The abuse of the decree without debate
sources of the cup and of Citizens coincide, without serving as a precedent, with the PSC: “The decree law should be an extraordinary emergency procedure, but it is possible that with the inertia of the pandemic this procedure is being used beyond what is necessary“. The cupaires cite, like Espadaler, the example of the decree on Catalan, which the anti-capitalist group asked to be processed as a law “because of all the implications it had”, but the Government and the groups in favor of the decree decided to continue without processing “We must be vigilant – they add in the CUP – so that this use of the decree law does not become an abuse, to guarantee that the legislative debates are held with the necessary time and form”. The Government groups maintain that the decrees have been justified by exceptional situations and the opposition has not knocked them down Board of Speakers nor has it forced them to be processed as laws.
Espadaler also considers that the intensity of the parliamentary debates has decreased significantly. “We are at the other extreme compared to 2017, partly because it is in the Government’s own interest to flatten the debate as much as possiblecomply with the procedures with the lowest profile, and the option of legislating through decrees demonstrates this, or that they do not send powerful bills”. The deputy regrets that many resolutions, even approved transversally, remain sleeping “the sleep of the just” However, the parliamentarian of the PSC-Units per Avançar he does see positive that there have been different types of alliances and also debates of interest such as the monograph on mental health or the one that approved the Catalan law with a transversal majority: ERC, Junts, PSC and ‘comuns’.
ERC initiates a reflection
Ernest Maragall, deputy and councilor in the Barcelona City Council for ERC, maintains that the Government manages to move forward in Parliament despite “the noise, often from the ranks of the majority.” Maragall is critical of the role of the Executive’s partner, Jxcat: “ERC is holding on, pulling forward, dragging, sometimes having to overwhelm braking attempts, but there is a progressive accent that dominates against a mixture of I don’t know what, of diverse interests”.
Maragall does make a self-criticism about parliamentary activity and reveals that the parliamentary group of CKD has initiated an internal reflection: “There are many mismatches or inefficiencies and a citizen perception that it is not as it could be.” In this regard, the deputy considers that the electoral systems with closed lists by each party are a key factor in this problem.
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Together’s spokesperson, Monica Salesavoids arguing with Maragall about relations between partners but does admit that “politics has the agility that it has, sometimes you could put the accelerator on some issues, we [Jxcat] We are doing an internal assessment of this issue, too & rdquor ;. And adds: “We have a pending issue, to better explain to the city what is done in the Parliament and that it is not news only because of issues that are not typical of political activity. And it is true that lately the focus has been more on the issue of the workers and the president, to whom I reiterate our support & rdquor ;. Sales remembers that when he began as a councilor he saw the rhythms of the city council as slow and now in Parliament, “the tempos are slower”.
The Borràs factor and the blocks
Undoubtedly, the activity of the Parliament, as Sales comments, has been marked by issues unrelated to the production of laws or measures related to citizens and their needs. The ‘Borràs case’ -the process that has led to the Parliament suspending her president when she has been summoned to trial for crimes related to corruption- has monopolized media and political attention. The defenders of Borràs -that is to say, Junts- have harshly criticized the operation of all the rest of the parties for having facilitated the application of the Parliament’s regulations. Maragall regrets “the noise generated by the parliamentary institution itself and the president herself”. Ignatius Martin Whitefrom Ciutadans, goes further: “The Parliament has suffered in the last year and a half a major degradation process and in this the Borràs presidency has been disastrous for the prestige and reputation of the Parliament; as long as the nationalist parties do not accept that the procedures in democracy are important, it will be difficult for us to recover the prestige of the Parlament”. Words of the deputy of a group that continues to be characterized by his controversial actions in the chamber.
Parliamentary activity in numbers
So far this legislature, -three periods of sessions, in the terminology of the Parliament- ten laws have been approved. Are they many or few? Compared to the same period of time in previous legislatures, there have been more productive precedents, in which 18, 12 or 11 laws have been approved. Others, less effective, with only eight, five or even just one law.
Regarding the content of these ten regulations, it can be detected that three of them have had notable weight, such as the one on budgets, the one accompanying the budgets and the one that the Government agreed with the PSC and the ‘comuns’ in defense of the Catalan in the educational model. But the rest of the seven laws are rather modifications of already existing regulations, that is, specific changes.
28 decrees have been approved, many more than those recorded in years prior to the pandemic. In 2007, only one decree was approved. During the years of coronavirus, this emergency instrument was used 52 times. Now the figure so far this year is 28 decrees. About what? On issues such as the rental of vehicles with a driver, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, on covid, on taxes and on homeowners’ associations, among others.