Societies evolve and go through different states of mind that cause unrepeatable moments. In Catalonia, the industrial revolution left a lasting mark in the form of a solid and rooted business fabric, a strong civil society and long-term urban planning, of which Ildefons Cerdà’s Eixample in Barcelona is a reference.
After the turn of the century, the Commonwealth of Catalonia assumed responsibility and worked to lay the foundations for the country’s development, with a very advanced vision of all the needs of the territory and its systems. The Republican Generalitat also had its planning moment. The Plan d’Obres Públiques directed by the road, canal and port engineer Victoriano Muñoz Oms drew with great ambition the necessary infrastructures for 50 years.
The long-term vision was recovered with the arrival of democracy, with the collective hope of reaching the socioeconomic level of advanced European societies. Based on an enormous task of urban planning, in a few years we were able to materialize a solid welfare state, with its gaps and deficits, but with an enormous leap in quality in the form of new mobility infrastructures, hospitals, schools, hydraulic uses. or purifiers.
However, we have reached an exhaustion when it comes to thinking big. We have difficulties making decisions from a global and systemic vision that prioritizes the collective good over partial and localist visions. There are many projects that do not advance due to the lack of capacity to implement socially necessary solutions, compensating the affected minorities or territories, or to assume the political cost of exercising responsibility and authority granted by the ballot box. We are witnessing a growing short-termism and an imposition of tactics ahead of strategy and long-term vision.
This is one of the big reasons why Catalonia accumulates increasingly flagrant deficiencies. They must be faced without delay to remain in the leading group of socially responsible societies, with a vision that combines environmental sensitivity and social equity and with business competitiveness that is essential for the generation of wealth and its fair distribution. It is often forgotten that the review of a government action must be carried out every four years, with an overview of the action of the legislature.
Our society has been built on the assumption that public services are guaranteed under any conditions. Today that is still not the case. To achieve this, it is essential not to shy away from or postpone debates and make decisions in areas such as water management, to avoid entering into recurring situations of known and predicted crises such as the current one. Water is not the only area in which we are short of ambition. There is a lack of a joint vision regarding energy transition and renewables, mobility, health, school or cultural services.
The country’s strategic planning does not have to be done only with a vision of growth – necessary in the past – but with the objective of achieving resilient and structuring public services capable of guaranteeing, under adverse conditions, the availability of water, electricity, mobility, health, social or school services. It is a difficult challenge that requires ambition, sensitivity, patience and high doses of political consensus, but it is a very stimulating task. The Catalonia we want, the Catalonia we need. If we do it well, it will be the legacy that our generation can leave to the following ones.
