The Generalitat This Wednesday he took another step in the battle he is waging with the Government to achieve the comprehensive transfer of Rodalies. He ‘president’ Pere Aragonès has taken advantage of the Government control session to announce that it will register today a request for the Parliament to hold a full monographic session on Rodalies. The ultimate goal is to increase the pressure PSOE to achieve this complete transfer and to include it as a bargaining chip in the negotiations on the investiture of Pedro Sanchez. The votes of CKD in exchange for this desired competition.
The ‘president’ movement has had an immediate response in the PSC. If Aragonès wants to force a specific plenary session on Rodalies, the first secretary of the Catalan socialists, Salvador Illa, has announced that he will ask for a specific plenary session on security to address the recent fights in Molins de Rei, Manresa and Vic. It is an exchange of wear and tear. If Aragonès brings to the plenary session an issue that compromises the Government, the PSC does the same with an issue that puts the Generalitat in trouble.
Requesting a full monograph on trains is part of a coordinated strategy by the Government to redouble the pressure on the PSOE to achieve this transfer. It is not the only piece that has moved lately. On Tuesday, the Catalan executive itself presented a report that denounced the continuous incidents recorded by Renfe trains in Catalonia and, last week, called for the resignation of the Minister of Transport, Rachel Sanchez.
According to sources from the Palau de la Generalitat, the president wants the chamber to address “the grievances related to Rodalies because they are intolerable” and to allege that serious incidents “have increased by 60% in the last ten years.” From Plaça Sant Jaume they also indicate that they want to generate “majorities” around the issue. What he wants, ultimately, is to put to a vote a resolution so that the Parliament can formally ask the State for this transfer. Thus, they consider that the pressure will increase for the PSOE to receive that the ERC vote for the investiture has at least three legs: the amnesty, the referendum and Rodalies.
And if what Aragonès is looking for is a pressure operation on the PSOE, the PSC will be Sánchez’s faithful squire. Illa has responded to the Government with the same medicine: he will ask for a full monograph on security, since he considers that they have not acted correctly with the mass fights that have occurred in recent days in Catalonia. In fact, he has also used Rodalies to counterattack: he has said that the Generalitat spends the day “asking for powers” – the trains – when it does not know how to use one of the “most relevant powers it has”: the police.
One year after divorce
In this Wednesday’s plenary session, the first year of the divorce of ERC and Junts in the Generalitat was also discussed. The leader of the post-convergents, Albert Batet, has criticized “the weakness and lack of leadership” of the current Government. To mark the opposition’s profile, he has announced that they will present a law to “activate” the agency that integrates the social and health care services provided by the Generalitat. Aragonès has been bothered by remembering that only 365 days ago this was a Junts competition in the executive.
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The first anniversary of the breakup has also shown that, in the absence of support from Junts, Aragonès does not have the favor of any other opposition party either and, if he wants new Catalan budgets, he will have to sweat. Two of his potential partners, the Comuns and the CUP, have taken advantage of the plenary session to issue several warnings. Jéssica Albiach, for example, has expressed her discontent because she considers that the Government is not complying with last year’s budget agreement. This Tuesday the two parties met and “it did not go well.” Xavier Pellicer has confirmed the “Govern blockade” and has taken it for granted that the ‘president’ will not be able to complete his mandate until 2025.
The “go for them” demonstration
The control session, on this occasion, has gone a long way and has also served to warm up the demonstration against the amnesty called by the Catalan Civil Society (SCC). The PP, Cs and Vox have expressed their support for the protest and regretted that the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, this Tuesday considered it an example of “Catalanphobia”. “He wants to expel millions of Catalans from Catalan identity,” lamented Carlos Carrizosa (Cs). Aragonès not only did not want to rectify his spokesperson, but he has gone a little further. He believes that the protest is to continue the “go for them.” That is, indirect support for the heavy-handed policy against Catalonia that was seen with the police charges of 1-O.