Ssndra Vicente, 18 August 2024
From employers’ associations to trade unions and NGOs, the organisations that are in dialogue with the government have different demands, but they all share the desire for a long and smooth legislature.
Salvador Illa is the embodiment of moderation. In manners and in politics. And this has won him the favour of a large part of the business and economic sector, while at the same time awakening hopes among the trade unions, who are calling for ‘courage’ in the defence of public services. Other agents more closely linked to the third sector, however, harbour certain doubts and fear that some of the decisions taken because of his supposed transversality, such as the appointment of councillors linked to Convergència i Unió, could end up signifying a conservative turn in the Government.
Illa arrives at the Generalitat at a complex moment, while the pro-independence movement is rearming and reorganising itself, but also with good economic data that give him room for manoeuvre. Moreover, all the agreements he has signed for his investiture are of a progressive orientation, with ERC and the Comuns. All in all, the business sector was practically unanimous in its desire for Illa to garner the necessary support to become president, both for the end of the procés and to avoid a repeat election.
This is what they told him at the annual dinner organised by the influential Cercle d’Economia in May. Although the investiture was still a long way off and the pact with ERC and Comuns was not yet a reality, most businessmen gave Illa their blessing and wished him the best of luck.
After seven years of the procés, they longed for ‘normality’. And the victory of the first non-independence socialist in more than a decade makes personalities such as Jaume Guardiola, president of the Cercle d’Economia, see that normality could have arrived. This is also the view of the Chamber of Commerce and Pimec, which celebrates the ‘de-judicialisation of democratically agreed politics’ and ‘normalisation’.
Now, the economic and business sector is calling for calm and stability from the new government, which in recent years – with legal and political ups and downs and electoral repetitions – has been lacking. And what is also an almost unanimous demand is the elaboration of a new financing model. ‘All infrastructures and social services are at the limit’, Guardiola assured in an interview with elDiario.es shortly before Illa’s investiture.
The Cercle d’Economia is calling on the government to be ‘brave’ and opt for a progressive financing model. Other economic agents, such as Pimec and the employers’ associations, have also openly positioned themselves in favour of a new fiscal paradigm.
But not all is joy in the business sector. Some organisations such as Foment – despite being satisfied with the investiture – are wary of the consequences of the pacts that Illa has needed with ERC and Comuns to reach the presidency. Foment speaks of ‘concern’ that ‘a political horizon of an interventionist nature that advocates the culture of degrowth’ is being drawn.
In this sense, the employers’ association finds it “disappointing” that, as a result of the investiture agreements, there is a desire to halt the execution of the B-40, the Hard Rock macro-casino or that the expansion of the airport has been replaced by a proposal for “modernisation”.
But for other agents, the pacts with the Comuns and ERC, instead of putting obstacles in the way, could fall short. While employers are calling for more tax cuts and the suspension of inheritance tax, trade unions such as CCOO and UGT are calling for more.
Strengthening the welfare state
The secretary general of CCOO in Catalonia, Javier Pacheco, congratulates Illa, but considers that the fiscal policies proposed ‘have not been sufficiently clear’. He regrets that, until there has been no investiture agreement, ‘he did not make clear the decision to maintain the inheritance tax or his clear intention to increase the income tax brackets according to income’.
Pacheco calls for ‘more courageous policies’, and the secretary general of the UGT in Catalonia, Camil Ros, expresses himself along the same lines, calling on the new president to exercise the Catalan competences with ‘more decisive policies’. He insists on the need to draw up a roadmap to define the industrial future and a sustainable tourism model, while strengthening social and political dialogue to ‘resolve the conflict and improve the conditions of the working class’.
The two major trade unions agree that the new tax model is good news, as long as it is to strengthen the welfare state. ‘It should not serve to lower taxes, but to have more income to improve public health and education,’ says Ros.
In this sense, both consider that another of the major challenges facing the government is to tackle the housing crisis. ‘The high prices are one of the great impediments to a decent life for the working class,’ says Ros. For his part, Pacheco also focuses on the need to deploy green policies and on the urgency of continuing to develop measures against gender violence.
Both are satisfied with the investiture, but the CCOO expresses doubts about some decisions, such as the appointment of Miquel Sàmper as Minister of Enterprise and Labour. The former Minister of the Interior in Torra’s government has no clear links with the economic or labour sector, so the appointment has caused ‘surprise’ in Pacheco. ‘We didn’t expect this to be the bet. We will have to see what team he puts together and whether it will be capable’, he points out.
Misgivings about some ministries
Sàmper’s appointment is not the only one that has aroused misgivings. The announcement of Olga Pané as head of the health portfolio has generated a wave of criticism on social networks as a result of some old videos in which she is seen calling for a reorganisation of doctors’ working hours to allow them to work longer hours or claiming that paediatricians are not necessary in primary care centres – a claim that, moreover, is shared by some healthcare organisations.
One of the aspects of Pané that most worries the sector is that he comes from the private health sector and the union Metges de Catalunya has already addressed, through a statement, to the new minister, warning her that ‘she should think about the globality of the system, always putting the public character of the system first and seeking the protection and welfare of its workers’.
The collective wanted to highlight the need to increase the health budget ‘by around 3,000 million euros a year’ to improve working conditions and ensure good care for citizens and reduce, among other things, the long waiting lists. Metges de Catalunya recognises Pané’s ‘long trajectory’ and urges him to continue with the transformation of the Catalan health model initiated during the ERC mandate, which also guaranteed spaces of participation for health workers.
Another announcement that has not gone down well is the creation of the ‘super-conselleria’ to be headed by Sílvia Paneque, who is currently in charge of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition. It is true that green organisations welcome the separation of the environmental and agricultural portfolios – which previously coexisted in the Ministry of Climate Action, Food and the Rural Agenda – because it appeals to sectors that often have contradictory interests.
But some, especially those linked to environmental conservation, fear that the fight against the climate crisis will be camouflaged among the issues affecting housing, the transfer of Rodalies or the spokesperson of the Govern, which is also in the hands of Paneque. Even so, some entities more focused on promoting decarbonisation see the glass as half full and consider that this cocktail can help to promote green energy, as the processing of wind and solar farms falls to the Territory, something that previously delayed the process.
Another appointment that has divided opinion is that of Esther Niubó as head of Education. She has experience in the sector and is well known to the main teachers’ union, USTEC. Its spokesperson, Yolanda Segura, focuses on the tensions that may arise in relation to language immersion. ‘It is very belligerent on this issue, and even called for the application of the 25% Spanish sentence in schools,’ she laments.
Beyond language, the teachers are clear about what they are asking Niubó for: more resources to put an end to segregation and early school leaving, and a clear commitment to public schools. They also hope to have a better relationship than with her predecessor, Anna Simó. During her tenure there was a record number of strikes in the sector and USTEC is calling for a reversal of some of the measures adopted by Simó, such as advancing the school calendar.
Another of the other hot groups in this legislature – at least, at the beginning – are the Mossos d’Esquadra. The new minister, Núria Parlon, has the challenge of correcting the image of the force after Puigdemont’s flight. The Sindicat Autònom and the Sindicat de Mossos d’Esquadra regret the management of the previous minister, Joan Ignasi Elena, and hope that her successor does not regard them ‘as an enemy’. And they ask, above all, that Parlon ‘be closer to the force’ and not be guided ‘by her political agenda’.
All in all, the organisations and social agents remain attentive to this new government, which – like all of them – begins with challenges. But in this case, Salvador Illa has the mandate to govern Catalonia in what has been conceived as a new stage after the procés, leaving the national agenda aside for the first time in seven years.
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