The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, presented a return plan so that the talent that has gone abroad in recent years in search of better opportunities returns to Catalonia, which is where they were trained. “We are a country of reception, but also of departure”, explained Aragonès alongside the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meritxell Serret. According to the Government, half a million Catalans have had to fight for their lives, a significant part of whom are highly qualified. The problem is that the plan does not have attractions so that those who have made the decision to settle in another country, because they give them what they cannot find in their own, decide to return.
Serret said that this was an accompanying plan, as if the talent needed a helping hand, and instead what many executives, professionals or scientists expect is that Catalonia offers good wages, attractive jobs and reasonable taxes. And a political stability that has not yet materialized. The plan foresees a single window to carry out the procedures to return home, actions aimed at teaching the Catalan language in the countries of origin or access to the health card and the digital identity certificate.
Does anyone really think this is the master formula for comeback? On the same day that the Generalitat made this announcement, full of good faith but empty of serious initiatives, it became known that Madrid has grown twice as much as Catalonia in the last twelve years and that the GDP per capita of the Catalans occupies the fourth position in Spain, below the EU average. And in addition, it is the first community in taxes.
A few days ago, professor Joan Mas Canti, 94 years old, gave a conference at Foment, with Jordi Pujol in the front row, where he expressed that independence had been a mistake, that it had harmed Catalonia. It is not a matter of crying out loud, but of taking advantage of this political moment to improve funding, the distribution of competences and the recognition of uniqueness. The results of education, the straits in health or the doubts in infrastructure do not encourage the return. The Government lacks ambition and has plenty of excuses
