One of the first experiments of refusal of the Catalan independence process was the campaign
After ten years of political ups and downs around the idea of ??independence, the debate returns to square one, to Enric Juliana’s “català emprenyat”. Pedro Sánchez believed that the soothing effect of the pardons was lasting and effective against any ailment in Catalonia. This week he remembered him in Congress and you could tell that he feels it is an injustice that the independence movement turns the page so quickly on a measure that wears down the PSOE. Indeed, times are vertiginous and memory, fragile. In Catalonia there is little talk of independence and yes, a lot, of the deficiencies in the functioning of Spanish democracy (Pegasus case) and the economic treatment of the central government.
The Chamber of Commerce has given alarming figures: the central government announces more investments in Catalonia than in Madrid, but then executes fewer works in the first community, only 35% of what was budgeted. In other words, much is promised and little is done. Bad business for the central government, which suffers from the erosion of the speeches about supposed privileges of the Catalans, while they have the feeling that they are being taken for a ride.
The Government assures that this difference between Catalonia and Madrid is less than what the Chamber maintains and that in the first quarter of this year the balance is much better. Although the percentages do not matter if the Catalans have the perception that the works are eternalized. That the elimination of tolls has turned against the Sánchez Executive shows how difficult it is to reverse the feeling of mistreatment that has been latent for years.
Inventing quick alternatives to a collapsed highway is almost impossible. In addition, in this matter of infrastructures, apart from the responsibility of the successive central governments, the capacity of the Catalan administration to dizzy the partridge is not less. The combination of a complex territory with politicians’ fear of making unpopular decisions has paralyzed many projects.
The expansion of El Prat airport is the clearest case. Also the Fourth Belt, which is no longer such due to the opposition of a part of the territory through which it should pass. In fact, ERC is against the construction of some sections of this expressway, while Junts is in favour.
In the section that affects Terrassa, Sabadell and Castellar del Vallès, the two do agree and have insistently requested that the central government put up the money and the Generalitat is in charge of building it. This week the minister Raquel Sánchez wanted to announce that she agreed to that demand, but the president, Pere Aragonès, ordered a stand because he considered that the minister was only seeking to whitewash the data of the Chamber. Raquel Sánchez is from the PSC and it is not a matter of giving the rival a break.
Minister Jordi Puigneró is waiting to find out if the Government is willing to transfer Rodalies and, if not, the Generalitat will launch a campaign in September to denounce the deficiencies of the service. Rodalies is already the symbol of anger since the time of Zapatero, when the works of the AVE caused constant breakdowns in the circulation of commuter trains.
ERC knows that this flank can wear down Salvador Illa’s PSC, an electoral competitor in the Barcelona conurbation. If Sánchez does not manage to reverse the malaise in Catalonia due to the infrastructure, it will have served him little to “deflate” the institutional clash posed by the independence movement. Especially when he defends that the dialogue should not be about an independence referendum, but about improvements for the life of the Catalans.
