The transfer days in the departments they are intense. The outgoing teams, as was the case this Tuesday in the recently renamed Ministry of Territory, move between mourning, relief and anguish for the future. There are huddles, farewells, exchange of information and expectations. As in other areas, experience adds up and those who have lived these situations other times relativize them.
The liturgy of images between the ‘conseller’ who was leaving and the one who was arriving was repeated in various government offices. In the building on Avinguda Josep Tarradellas de Barcelona the protagonists were the struck down vice president Jordi Puigneró and the brand new Juli Fernàndez, who had promised the position hours before. The office overlooking the Sant’s station It was filled with cameras to immortalize the moment, pending the witty phrase or gesture.
No digital policies
Puignero and Fernandez they spoke softly and smiled, each for different reasons. The former vice president handed him a folder where, he told him, he had documentation on the Llei de Territori and matters of town planning because, he launched resentfully, “the digital policies are no longer there.”
The first thing Territori emerges from is the very long name and, therefore, of the responsibilities I had the vice president. It has only been 16 months, but the ‘ministry’ that historically had dealt with infrastructures, public works or land use planning, had until now been called Vice-presidency, Digital Policies and Territory. The vice presidency and digital policies fall and will be called Territory to dry, as published on Monday the Official Gazette of the Generalitat (DOGC).
FGC trains by Rodalies
As in previous transfers of ‘consellers’, the portfolio transfer ceremony could not miss the railways. The newcomer, former mayor of Sabadell, also received a model of a train de Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) on behalf of Puigneró, in addition to his latest book, ‘El 5è poder’: “Now you won’t have time to read, but for the holidays,” he joked.
The FGC train had arrived down the hall from the office of the also outgoing Secretary General of the Department, Ricard Font: outgoing from Territori because his dismissal had been published shortly before in the DOGC, but incoming at the Barcelona City Council to direct Bimsa, signed by the Mayor Ada Colau after passing a selection process that was presented in May, that is, before the turbulence between Govern partners that have led to the final rupture.
A connoisseur of the house returns
The departure of Junts from government Catalan and the remodeling of the Government by the ‘president’ Pere Aragones has not behaved only a simple change of ‘consellers’ and general secretaries (for now) but also these modifications in the denomination and the competences. In the case of Territori, it also recovers the company that executes the infrastructures for the entire Generalitat, Infrastructures.catand the Catalan Housing Agency.
In previous mandates, he had also had the responsibilities linked to environmentcalling itself Territory and Sustainabilitybut these were moved to Climate Action Department by Teresa Jordà in May 2021. Already without the environmental policies neither the digital ones nor those linked to the vice presidency, Territori will return to the essence, something that has been celebrated in some areas.
But if something has been applauded it has been the Infrastructures.cat recovery into the hands of Territori because in recent years it depended on the Ministry of Economy and Hisenda. The reason why he moved to the other department was precisely because this public company conducts tenders, executes and maintains the works of all the departments of the Government, not only of Territori.
Namely, takes care too schools, hospitals, administrative offices or outpatient clinics, in addition to roads either subway lines. In addition, coincidence or not, the person who will replace Font at the head of the general secretary will be Joan Jaume i Omsin his day president of the company, and a good connoisseur of the former Ministry of Territorial Policy, where he was decades ago.
A year of celebration
In Infrastructures.cat, still awaiting the changes in the government, were somewhat more skeptical about the goodness of the change. Precisely this year they celebrate a decade and these weeks they have celebrated the event highlighting that holistic look over all departments. Be that as it may, the board of directors of the company will maintain representatives of all of them, with which supposedly the weight of territory shouldn’t be that important.
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The other great challenge that the executing company of the public works will have to face will be the Next Generation fundswhich have forced to hire more personal to meet European deadlines.
And the other competence that the Conselleria de Territori had had in previous legislatures was the promotion and maintenance of the public housing stock through the Catalan Housing Agency. In the last year, this has been the responsibility of the portfolio of Social Rightswith the ‘consellera’ Violant Cervera to the front, but now it returns again to Territori.