The members of the Government of the Generalitat have met this Tuesday for the first time without mobile phones or tablets. Last week the order was given and from now on it will be done like this every week. In the Catalan Executive there were already work spaces where one entered without terminals or electronic devices, but in the weekly meetings of the Consell Executiu until now this measure had not been adopted.
“Many other governments hold their meetings like this and there are other meetings in which the members of the Generalitat already enter without mobile phones. It is not at all strange,” said the spokeswoman for the Government, Patrícia Plaja, at the subsequent press conference, in which has also detailed that “there is fear” of being spied on “because there is a lack of guarantees, security and public explanations that the use of Pegasus will never be repeated again.”
The measure of leaving mobile phones outside the rooms where meetings are held is not new and had already been adopted, for example, in October 2017, at the height of the procés.
The issue of espionage is not on the agenda of the meeting between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and that of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, next Friday in Moncloa, but it is an issue that will surely be addressed, as pointed out Beach. “It is one of the issues that has broken and strained relations between the Government and the Government the most in recent months. Minister Félix Bolaños and Minister Laura Vilagrà have already talked about it. It is not on the agenda, but it is difficult to think that it will not be talked about,” the spokeswoman stressed.
Regarding the appointment of the two presidents, Plaja has revealed that the Catalan Executive is going to Madrid with low expectations. “Expectations are not high because relations of trust are undermined, but it is important because it will be seen if there is a change in the Spanish government in relation to Catalonia,” he stressed.
In this meeting, which, in the opinion of the Government, is late and should have taken place weeks or months ago, the guarantees required by the Generalitat in the “dejudicialization” will be addressed. That is the main point that is now on the table of the forums between the two administrations and in Palau they hope to “stop the judicial process” in the cases that are still open and “redirect trust.”
However, Plaja has not detailed what guarantees they expect. “The Generalitat’s proposals have not changed: Exercise self-determination with a referendum and an end to repression with an amnesty,” the spokeswoman remarked. “If the Government has a different proposal, it will put it on the table, but for now there is nothing”, she has pointed out about the possibility of addressing the reform of the crimes of sedition and rebellion in the Penal Code.
Regarding this aspect, in the Government they believe that this matter is not on the immediate horizon right now and from the meeting on Friday, from which they demand “concrete results”, a new date for the dialogue table could come out if there is content. Without content, that forum will not meet again.
“The situation of the relations between the two governments will be addressed, relations are not normalized or even close to being. The guarantees required by the Government and the dejudicialization folder will also be discussed,” Plaja summarized, reiterating that ” It is not a meeting for the photo, it is a meeting from which concrete results are going to be demanded”. “Expectations are not high, we will see if the results exceed them,” she insisted.
On the situation of the president of the Parlament, Laura Borràs, the spokeswoman for the Generalitat has avoided commenting and has limited herself to saying that the “stability” of the Government is the same as it was a few weeks ago. “The Government does not have, nor should it have an opinion on the matter”, she has settled.
To get out of the way, Plaja has pointed out that they have the “maximum respect for the separation of powers, and that it is not convenient or timely, nor is it appropriate to make assessments.” “Within the Government, stability is the same as it was a few weeks ago. There are agreements and a government plan that everyone knows and respects”, he has sentenced.
