Meritxell Budo (Barcelona, 1969), was at the political focus of the pandemic in Catalonia, weathering external and internal storms. A pharmacist by profession and a member of Junts, in 2020 ‘councillor’ of the Presidency and spokesperson for the Government, she drenches herself thoroughly about the lessons of the crisis three years later, but she keeps many personal notebooks about what happened.
In Catalonia and in our environment, were you overconfident when the virus was born in China?
Perhaps, seen in perspective, we acted with more confidence than necessary, but we didn’t have the tools to act otherwise, honestly.
“The covid caught us like the rest of the world. Limiting the debate to cuts seems superficial to me”
Would a more robust public health in Catalonia, which came from years of cutbacks, have allowed for better management?
He took us like the rest of the world. Limiting it to cuts seems superficial to me. The health system gave everything in a coordinated way. With more startup tools we could have done more. I mean PCR. It was said that they only gave the photo of the moment. It gave the photo of the moment, but you could identify the positives and isolate them.
Is it true that the ‘conselleria’ of Health of Alba Vergès did not believe in the PCR from the outset?
Let’s just say that initially it didn’t seem like the turning point. We had advisors and experts and they all put the importance of PCR on the table.
“The ‘department’ of Health did not think that the PCRs were a turning point”
Did partisanship continue, internally, despite the crisis?
To me the ‘president’ [Quim] Torra commissioned me to coordinate the Government and I did it as much as I could. It is true that there was a greater predisposition in some ‘consellers’ than in others to be coordinated.
Did those from Junts have more predisposition?
Exactly. I had to act as a hinge between the two colors of the Government.
“I had to act as a hinge. There was a greater predisposition in the ‘consellers’ of Junts to be coordinated”
Why did it take so long to react in nursing homes?
It was probably reacted late and not with the necessary measures. we did not have PPE [Equipos de Protección Individual]. It was a combination of circumstances. We have to rethink what model of residences we want, what health care they should have. The comprehensive social and health care agency tries to turn the model around.
Oriol Mitjà, one of the Government’s advisers, assured that there was an internal circular asking not to refer the elderly from residences to hospitals…
I do not know if this circular existed. What I do know is that hospitals, ICUs, primary care, ambulances… were collapsed.
“I do not know if there was a circular asking not to refer the elderly from residences to hospitals”
In other words, it had to be prioritized…
This will have to be explained to you by the Department of Health. I don’t remember any order to prioritize any person over any other.
What assessment do you make of the management of the then Minister of Health, Salvador Illa?
He was not my counterpart but we had a fluid relationship. Sometimes we disagreed, but we talked. There was a dialogue. But I am still very critical about when they recentralized certain powers, which we had had for 30 years. With Catalonia they were wrong. And they were slow in making decisions.
The purchase of material also generated a speculative market…
You bought a plane of masks and a higher bidder came and paid a million dollars more and the plane diverted its course to that buyer’s country. It was a shameful speculative market at a time of greatest need.
“The purchase of material generated a shameful speculative market”
And do they have first and last names, these speculators?
It will be difficult to clarify. Sometimes the human condition is not as noble as it should be.
Do you regret having said that in an independent Catalonia there would have been fewer deaths?
Perhaps it was an unfortunate phrase in the context of an interview with a question, a cross-question, and a final question. What she wanted to say is that you had to act quickly to avoid deaths and that Catalonia had been demanding since March 13 that we all confine ourselves at home.
Have we learned anything from the pandemic, from a medical, biomedical, social point of view…? It was said that nothing would be the same after the covid…
I am very critical. I think we haven’t learned too much. The human condition is to stumble over the same stone repeatedly and regarding what we said that we would emerge stronger, I am not sure that this was the case. And now we find ourselves with a derived problem, such as mental health, which is emerging and we do not have enough resources to deal with it.
“We have not learned much, the human condition is to stumble over the same stone”
What is the worst and the best thing that you have experienced with the management of the pandemic?
The best thing I learned is that when it comes to governing in certain crises you have to be able to listen to a lot of people and surround yourself with the best advisors to make decisions. And this we did. And worst, party politics.
Why, even in the face of a global crisis, was the party prioritized?
Because someone made electoral calculations and had to think: ‘up to here, because my electoral calculations say such a thing.’
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Torra accused ERC, including Pere Aragonès, of disloyalty…
I don’t want to talk about disloyalties, but it is true that electoral calculations sometimes weighed more than the management of the pandemic.