Catalonia: two months before the legislative elections, a regional executive at the end of its rope
The president of the Catalan government, Quim Torra, was dismissed in September 2020. AFP / File
Text by: François Musseau Follow
3 min
The current regional executive of Catalonia, which advocates unilateral separation from Spain, is living its last days as it ends its mandate.
New legislative elections, which renew the Catalan Parliament, are scheduled for February 14.
And the executive is out of breath.
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With our correspondent in Madrid,
François Musseau
The Catalan government, which is living its last days, is politically at the end of its rope.
Its president,
Quim Torra
, was
dismissed at the end of September
by the Spanish courts for having waved independence flags on the pediment of the government palace.
It is the vice-president, Father Aragonés, who is in charge but he only ensures the management of current affairs.
As in the sixteen other Spanish regions, the regional executive is at bay due to the pandemic.
But in Catalonia, this weakening is coupled with a political crisis.
This executive is officially in favor of independence.
But it is deeply divided between on the one hand the pragmatists of Esquerra, who want at all costs to negotiate any possible referendum with the central power in Madrid, and on the other hand the radicals of Junts, who continue to advocate secession. unilateral, convinced that the central power will never allow the independence of Catalonia.
The separatist boat no longer knows how to navigate
There is no longer a common strategy.
On the one hand, separatism is no longer considered a priority while the coronavirus is raging and this scourge must first be tackled.
And on the other hand, there is a political breathlessness of the separatists.
The Radicals are themselves divided into two new factions which do not get along.
The separatist boat therefore no longer knows how to navigate.
Its captains do not have a roadmap.
The possibility of independence, and even of a referendum, is increasingly remote.
For now, the only concrete demand is
the release of the nine incarcerated separatist leaders
, who are serving sentences of up to 13 years in prison.
Economy at half mast
The economic situation is not blazing either.
For the third year in a row, the GDP of Catalonia, which has always been the economic powerhouse of Spain, is lower than that of the Region of Madrid.
The latter monopolizes two thirds of foreign investment, against only 15% for Catalonia, and the two large Catalan employers' organizations, Foment and Pimec, say that at least 20% of companies are to be closed.
A real disaster that these two organizations attribute of course to the pandemic but also, they say, to the carelessness and carelessness of the separatist government which, according to them, is more concerned with the identity of the Catalans than with the health of the economy.
On February 14, the Catalans will say whether they want the independence movement to stay in power, as it has since 2012, or go into opposition.
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