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The coronavirus health crisis is tearing apart the few seams that joined JxCat and ERC in the Government of the Generalitat, with an open war between the two formations for the management of nursing homes and the defense of the "total confinement" of Catalonia that claims the president, Quim Torra .

The Covid-19 dismantled the separatist agenda, which consisted of continuing to extract concessions from President Pedro Sánchez at the "bilateral negotiating table" while the Catalan elections, which Torra was planning to convene in summer or autumn according to the polls, were preparing to clash, to settle which party will hold nationalist hegemony in Catalonia in the coming years.

From the moment the state of alarm comes into effect, separatism is left without a story and chooses to focus its efforts on attacking the "mismanagement" of the Government in the health crisis, insinuating that the infected and deceased in Catalonia they were largely due to the "mismanagement" of the State, demanding the closure of the "borders" with the whole of Spain. That unit lasted just the first week of confinement. Until the Covid-19 began to hit hard in Catalonia, especially in nursing homes, where more than 1,200 people have died (38% of the total number of deceased Catalans), and whose management is confronting Torra and the councilors Republicans of Health, Alba Vergés , and Social Affairs, El Homrani .

Confined Torra in the Palau, for having some symptoms of Covid-19, launching contradictory messages, many of them based on hoaxes from social networks, and without consensus with the advisers, the fight with his ERC partners threatens the integrity of the Govern. Torra is referring the Government's serious management deficits in this crisis to the Republican councilors, as he did yesterday with Vergés , on whose shoulders he charged with the responsibility that the Government vetoed "by technical criteria" the use of the field hospital that the Guard Civil mounted in Sant Andreu de la Barca (Barcelona), with 150 beds and which has been ready for fifteen days.

I veto the Army

Likewise, Torra denies any responsibility in the paralysis for five days of the Army's activities of disinfecting residences, as reported by fifty Catalan municipalities, and by the fact that in most cases the Government chooses to use a private company before the UME does. In this sense, he pointed out in an interview on RAC-1 to the Social Affairs Minister as being responsible for the critical situation in the residences, admitting that they had "neglected" the social and health area, in addition to "communication" problems, which has forced them to "a change of course".

Disgusted with the role of Homrani , as he admitted in an interview in the SER, Torra referred to the fact that the management of the residences has gone from Social Affairs to Health. A decision made, however, unilaterally by ERC and that ERC Vice President Pere Aragonès communicated last Wednesday to the President of the Generalitat. "Torra found it all done, because he has no idea how these areas work," say sources in the Catalan government, who criticize the president "go to his own." The republican arguments for this change, which seeks to cut Torra's criticism, is that "the problem in nursing homes and nursing homes has become health care rather than dependency care" and, therefore, those responsible will assume it of Health.

Other skirmishes

The war between JxCat and ERC in recent days has seen other small skirmishes. On Wednesday during the telematic appearance of the Minister of Health, the JxCat spokesperson, Josep Riera , asked him if he had been "sufficiently sensitive" when communicating the death figures in Igualada, the main focus of Covid-19 in Catalonia. Visibly angry, Vergés burst out: «Some question offends me. It's okay to play with the dead! ». Another JxCat bid to the Republican Minister of Health was received from the Speaker in Congress, Laura Borràs . "The experts had been influencing prevention for a long time and perhaps they were not attended to with the speed that was needed, since Health said that there was no danger," he said in an interview in El Periódico .

Counselor Buch

The bad environment has also been installed within JxCat, where Torra has the closed support of a spokesperson, Meritxell Budó , and the company counselor, Angels Chacón . This week, at the executive meeting, he hired the Minister of the Interior, Miquel Buch , because in his opinion, and because of the comments he was receiving from friends and on social networks, he was not getting the Mossos to prevent many Catalans from moving to their second residences. "A sort of General Patton is created," say sources in the Executive about the attitude of Torra, who has created a crisis cabinet with the star scientist of separatism, Oriol Mitjá , to make decisions on his own. Among them the one of a "total confinement" that Aragonès , person in charge of the area of ​​Economy, rejects.

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  • Junts per Catalunya
  • ERC
  • Catalonia
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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