Catalonia will be, for Sant Jordi, the center of Spanish politics, given the disembarkation of politicians who will go to Barcelona to celebrate the day of the book and the rose and, incidentally, to hold pre-campaign events. Because if this frequent attendance has anything to do with the advent of the elections in May and with the policy that the coalition Government has carried out in Catalonia.
Six ministers, three socialists and three from Unides Podemos, will be in Barcelona this weekend. The Presidency, Félix Bolaños; the one for Culture, Miquel Iceta, and the one for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, for the socialist side, and the second vice-president, Yolanda DÃaz; the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, for the purple part. The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will also be there.
Iceta’s presence is mandatory, as the holder of the portfolio responsible for the literary sector. In addition, its status as Catalan, like Subirats, makes competition in Catalonia for Sant Jordi inexcusable. But the Central Government will strengthen its presence with Minister Bolaños, who has piloted the dialogue for the normalization of relations after the process.
In the first, the “courtesy†visit, according to ministry sources, to the Abbey of Montserrat, where he will see Abbot Manel Gasch; at the Badalona Town Hall, and his presence at the start of the Feria de Abril de Catalunya, which takes place tomorrow, Friday.
At the Ministry of the Presidency, they do not clarify whether his stay in Catalonia will give rise to some discrete meeting with the Catalan Government, but, at the moment, it is not planned, they say.
The minister will also have party events, such as a rally in Vendrell (Baix Penedès), and several events with the PSC candidate for Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, and the leader of the Catalan formation, Salvador Illa, who will be signing his book El year of the pandemic in Rambla Catalunya. In addition, he will attend La Vanguardia’s Sant Jordi party on Saturday, which will take place on Sant Jordi’s Eve in the center of the city.
This event will bring together the six ministers. Yolanda DÃaz will go there after having attended, in the morning, a pre-campaign event with the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, at the Palau de Congressos de Barcelona. Minister Irene Montero will not attend this meeting, given the struggle between Podemos and the second vice-president for electoral competition through the Sumar platform, but the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, a member of En Comú Podemos, DÃaz’s ally in his plan to run as a unity candidate in the general elections.
In any case, DÃaz, Subirats and Montero will coincide with La Vanguardia’s Sant Jordi party with Bolaños, Albares and Iceta.
Feijóo also lands in Catalonia tomorrow and will be there for three days. Among his acts, he will accompany the PP candidate in Castelldefels (Baix Llobregat), Manuel Reyes, and the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Daniel Sirera.
