The pact that reissued the Government between Esquerra and Together included the periodic call for days of coexistence to avoid being trapped in the discrepancies that marked the Executive of Quim Torra. The first appointment was in the Vall d’En Bas, on September 4, and was marred by the differences over the extension of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport and, this Saturday, the second, in the Palau de Pedralbes, due to the unchecking de Junts of the linguistic pact.
This second ‘coexistence’ of the Government was thought to analyze the ravages of the war in ukraine and the Catalan response to the socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis with the visions of four experts who starred in a round table moderated by the spokesperson for the Executiu, Patricia Plaja. But the meeting between ‘consellers’ and general secretaries was marked by the tensions generated in Palau by Junts withdrawing from the pact to retouch the language policy law -along with PSC, ERC and ‘comuns’- eight hours after signing and registering it in Parliament. The regulatory retouch -which establishes Catalan as the vehicular language and Spanish as the teaching language- aims to respond to the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that establishes 25% of classes in Spanish without marking percentages and as a shield for a later decree of the Department of Education which, in turn, continues without stopping the planned strike of teachers next week.
The Government spokeswoman explained at a press conference that the ‘president’ and the ‘vice president’ spoke, at the beginning of the day, about “the judicialization of Catalan and the legislative modifications” and reached four shared points. The first, that the Executiu “is absolutely committed”, in all its spheres, “to the use and learning of Catalan”, “defends that Catalan is and will continue to be the vehicular language of the school“, which will look for ways “to separate the courts from linguistic decisions” and, lastly, “values the great political consensus in defense of Catalan because the agreement of the Parliament It is a good starting point and we must continue to do everything possible in all areas to protect Catalan in a coordinated way and all together”.
Plaja defended that the message from the entire Government is that the Catalan language is “the weakest language in terms of knowledge and ability to use it, unfortunately, so the objective is to protect and strengthen Catalan”. Now he said that this does not alter the parliamentary procedurewhich continues its course for a reform by single reading and of extraordinary urgency, so that on Tuesday it will be set on the agenda of the plenary session on April 5, 6 and 7.
The Olympic Games
Plaja confirmed that the Government of the Generalitat reached a “technical” agreement with Aragón to jointly present the candidacy for the 2030 Winter Olympics: “It is a good proposal that confirms that the main tests will be held in the Catalan Pyrenees and ice hockey in Barcelona”, he claimed, affirming that “it is difficult to understand” the Aragonese response after reaching an agreement reached after several months of negotiating.
The decree calling for the referendum will be signed next week and then the details on the geographic scope of the vote and whether it will be included will be revealed. Berguedà, Ripollès and Solsonèsas the CUP and the ‘comuns’ claim.