The Government of the Generalitat considers that the face to face between the President of the Government and PSOE candidate, Pedro Sánchez, and the candidate and leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo showed “the worst fall in politics” due to his few references to the Catalan question and because when Catalonia was mentioned “it was to attack it”.
In a press conference after the meeting of the Executive Council on Tuesday, the spokesperson Patrícia Plaja regretted that in the debate on Monday at Atresmedia “no proposal to resolve the political conflict, to reverse the investment deficit suffered by Catalonia” emerged nor concrete improvements to reduce the problems that we Catalans suffer with, for example, the Rodalies service”.
According to Plaja, on the few occasions that Catalonia was mentioned during the face-to-face “it was to insult” and “attack” it. And instead, according to the spokeswoman, “we saw constant falsehoods, contempt against sexist violence or expressions as retrograde as those that alluded to the size of the flags.” The Government has not valued the assertions of both opponents about the policy of pacts, on which Feijóo was especially belligerent with Sánchez for his agreements with Esquerra Republicana, nor the criticism of the popular leader on measures related to the Catalan question such as the approval of the pardons or the reform of the Penal Code.
On the other hand, the Government has valued other aspects of Spanish politics as a result of the municipal and regional elections of the past 28-M. In particular, the reaction of the president of the Corts Valencianes Llanos Masó, from Vox, who turned away from a banner against gender violence in a minute of silence for the death of a woman in Antella stabbed to death by her husband. Plaja has lamented that with the arrival of the ultra-right in the institutions they are trying to “reduce the rights of women” and has denounced the attitude of Vox, warning that “denying sexist violence is apologizing for violence.”
The spokeswoman has gone further by challenging those who support attitudes such as Masó’s to “have the courage to tell the children of mothers murdered at the hands of their partners that sexist violence does not exist.”
Given the increase in support that the ultra-right is receiving in Spain and in Europe, the Government has reaffirmed its desire to “prepare ourselves for all scenarios” with the aim that “Catalonia continues to be a land of freedoms”, and has warned about the trivialization of the advance of the extreme right “here and throughout the State”, something that can only be combated “by coming together all the Democrats”.
With Vox’s access to the institutions and its agreements with the PP in Catalan-speaking territories, such as the Balearic Islands, Catalonia is facing a new scenario of relations that, foreseeably, will have nothing to do with the one that President Pere Aragonès has maintained with the socialist presidents of the Valencian Community (Ximo Puig) and the Balearic Islands (Francina Armengol). Asked precisely if there has been any contact between the head of the Government and the new Balearic president, the popular Marga Prohens, Plaja has indicated that she is not aware of it.
