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In Catalonia provisionality has been in effect for several months if we add to the 7 months after the beheading of the Generalitat due to disqualification of President Torra, the 80 days of sterile negotiations between the two main pro-independence parties.The still unresolved consequences of the Catalan political crisis, has been stranding the Catalan economy and society for about ten years. It is not surprising that, after so many unsuccessful attempts, ERC's Pere Aragonès has shown himself willing to govern alone. If an agreement is not reached a deserted Catalonia without a pilot would lead to the umpteenth electoral repetition. In the situation just described, such a repetition would be catastrophic and grotesque. A real mockery of so many Catalan businessmen and workers who have stoically endured the scourge of the pandemic. We cannot wait any longer without Govern.

Editorial La Vanguardia 10/5/2021

The ERC candidate for the Presidency of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès DAVID ZORRAKINO – EUROPA PRESS / EP

If, to the months of the beheading of the Generalitat due to the disqualification of President Torra, we add the 80 days of sterile negotiations between the two main pro-independence parties, it turns out that we have been provisionally in Catalonia for seven months. Seven months that have passed under a perfect storm. On the one hand, under the yoke of the pandemic, which has limited our civil life and has overwhelmed the health system. On the other, under an unforeseen economic crisis, due to the global paralysis due to the covid and the tremendous restrictions, which have affected various sectors, mainly tourism, hotels and restaurants.

These dire circumstances, which have affected the entire planet and wreaked havoc on all the economies of our environment, have been mixed with the still unresolved consequences of the Catalan political crisis, which has been stranding the Catalan economy and society for about ten years while the world keeps on rolling. The loss that so many companies fled in October 2017 meant for our economy continues in the mistrust that prolonged political instability arouses in investors.

If Aragonès does not get the investiture, a disheartened Catalonia will repeat elections again

As if all this were not enough to alarm our political representatives, the provisional nature leaves the Catalan institutions at the mercy of events, with serious risk for the day-to-day life of society, but also for the future of the country. The lack of political direction is an added difficulty to the European recovery plan and to so many other reconstruction plans that we will have to face and that we should be preparing. We are all looking forward to the complete clearing of the COVID fog, but we cannot forget that it will reveal a harsh economic landscape. Catalonia is flirting with disaster. We cannot wait any longer without Govern.

It is not surprising that, after so many unsuccessful attempts, ERC’s Pere Aragonès has shown himself willing to govern alone. His party has a meager number of 33 deputies (with the CUP they reach 42), but Aragonès has come to the conclusion that the pact with Junts per Catalunya would imply the subordination of ERC’s decision-making capacity to a kind of tutelage from Waterloo by Carles Puigdemont through the Consell per la República, a legal but private entity, democratically irresponsible. It is also surprising that the intention is to negotiate beyond what is here under discussion, which is the formation of a Government. Junts intends to address a unitary action in Congress by the independence movement as if general and non-regional elections had been held on February 14. The blow of ERC on the table is justified.

ERC has the promise that Jordi Sànchez made precisely in our newspaper in the sense that, if the negotiations with ERC did not reach port, Junts, to avoid an electoral repetition, would yield the votes that Aragonès needs to be invested. If this promise is not fulfilled, a deserted Catalonia without a pilot would lead to the umpteenth electoral repetition. In the situation just described, such a repetition would be catastrophic and grotesque. A real mockery of so many Catalan businessmen and workers who have stoically endured the scourge of the pandemic.

A Government with the support of the Comúns and the CUP is certainly not a panacea, as it will have a bias that is not exactly favorable to economic recovery as it is understood in our European framework. In this sense, it is a pity that the PSC-ERC entente was not possible. Surely the time had not come. Be that as it may, it would be a lesser evil necessary to get out of the current blockade. Aragonès does not have it easy. He has only a few days to try.

https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20210510/7441384/govern.html

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